Towards a comprehensive simulator for public speaking anxiety treatment

Abstract

Public speaking anxiety (PSA) is often cited as the most common social phobia. Virtual reality enables us to overcome PSA with life-like scenarios. This paper first reviews the state-of-the-art in virtual environments as an emerging treatment for public speaking anxiety and presents a comprehensive Virtual Environment (VE). In most of the studies there is a lack in the inclusion of physical and vocal cues. Physical and vocal cues generated by the audience are crucial contributors to PSA. We design a virtual auditorium with an audience exhibiting these physical and vocal cues; a comprehensive VE, helping overcome PSA. Additionally, participants are subjected to the three phases of speech: Anticipation, Performance and Recovery [Cornwell et al. in Biol Psychiatry 59(7):664–666, 2006 1]. The resulting simulator can then be used for training and eventual treatment of PSA in addition to being used as a tool for identifying cues to which speakers are more sensitive to.