How technology influences the therapeutic process: a comparative field evaluation of augmented reality and in vivo exposure therapy for phobia of small animals

Authors:
Maja Wrzesien;Jean-Marie Burkhardt;Mariano Alcañiz;Cristina Botella
Affiliations:
Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación en Bioingeniería y Tecnología Orientada al Ser Humano, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain;Paris Descartes University, LATI, Paris cedex, France;Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación en Bioingeniería y Tecnología Orientada al Ser Humano, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia and CIBER, Fisiopatologí ...;CIBER, Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Departamento de Psicologia Basica y Psicobiologia Universidad Jaume I, Castellón, Spain
Venue:
INTERACT'11 Proceedings of the 13th IFIP TC 13 international conference on Human-computer interaction - Volume Part I
Year:
2011

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Abstract

In Vivo Exposure Therapy (IVET) has been a recommended protocol for the treatment of specific phobias. More recently, several studies have suggested that Augmented Reality Exposure Therapy (ARET) is a potentially effective technology in this field. The objective of this paper is to report the preliminary results of a comparative analysis of ARET and IVET applied to the treatment of phobia to small animals. To analyze participants' activity, we have adopted a multidisciplinary and mixed perspective based on clinical and usercentered approaches. This pilot results show that ARET and IVET are both clinically effective. Both therapies produce a significant reduction in the clinical outcome measures and allow the clients to interact with a real phobic stimulus after the therapeutic session. The results also show some main differences between technology-mediated therapy and traditional non-mediated therapy. We discuss these results in terms of future design and evaluation guidelines for Mental Health technologies.