Identifying Feelings of Threat Through Tracked Head Movements in A Virtual Classroom

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Paper Session: Instructional and Developmental Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Virtual reality allows the controlled simulation of social settings, such as classrooms, and thus provides an opportunity to test a range of theories in the social sciences in a way that is both naturalistic and controlled. Importantly, such an environment also allows the body movements of the participant in the virtual world to be tracked and recorded. In the following paper we discuss how tracked head movements were correlated with participants' reports of anxiety in a simulation of a computer classroom. Participants who reported a high sense of awareness of and concern about the other virtual people in the room showed different patterns of head movement from those who reported a low level of concern. We discuss the implications of this research for understanding nonverbal behavior associated with anxiety both in the classroom, and for the design of online educational systems.

Authors

• Andrea Stevenson Won, Stanford U

• Michelle Friend, Stanford U

• Brian Perone, Stanford U

• Jeremy N. Bailenson, Stanford U