Pilot study for assessing the behaviors of patients with schizophrenia towards a virtual avatar.

This study examined whether a virtual avatar could be perceived as a real human by patients with mental disease, especially schizophrenia, as well as whether a virtual avatar could be applied to acquiring patients' behavior characteristics in a short conversation situation. The virtual avatar has been used for various applications which need to communicate with other person or to train or educate by showing humanlike behavior. Recently, many researches have shown that the virtual avatar technology has been enhanced and the avatar could be perceived like real human. A virtual avatar, standing in a virtual room, was designed for this study. Tasks to approach, initiate a talk, and answer to avatar's questions was assigned to the 11 patients with schizophrenia. As behavioral parameters in the virtual environment, the interpersonal distance and the verbal response time were acquired. In addition, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for patients was administered in order to investigate the relationship between patients' symptomatic characteristics and behavior parameters. The interpersonal distance was negatively correlated with the negative syndrome scale, a subscale of PANSS, which is consistent with previous research reporting the relationship between interpersonal distance and a real person's image. The verbal response time, however, was not correlated with any other subscale of PANSS. After analyzing subitems of the negative syndrome of PANSS, two positive correlations were found: one was with blunted affect and the other was with poor rapport. We concluded that the virtual avatar could be perceived as a real human by schizophrenic patients and the avatar could draw the schizophrenic patients' behavior characteristics.     

Integrating haptic-tactile feedback into a video-capture-based virtual environment for rehabilitation.

Video-capture virtual reality (VR) systems are gaining popularity as intervention tools. To date, these platforms offer visual and audio feedback but do not provide haptic feedback. We contend that adding haptic feedback may enhance the quality of intervention for various theoretical and empirical reasons. This study aims to integrate haptic-tactile feedback into a video capture system (GX VR), which is currently applied for rehabilitation. The proposed multi-modal system can deliver audio-visual as well as vibrotactile feedback. The latter is provided via small vibratory discs attached to the patient's limbs. This paper describes the system, the guidelines of its design, and the ongoing usability study.     

VR-based conversation training program for patients with schizophrenia: a preliminary clinical trial.

Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness and is characterized by hallucinations and delusions as well as social skills deficits. Generally, social skills training designed to help patients develop social skills includes role-playing, but this form of training has typical shortcomings, which are largely due to a trainer's difficulties to project emotion. Virtual reality (VR)-based techniques have the potential to solve these difficulties, because they provide a computer-generated but realistic three-dimensional world and humanlike avatars that can provide emotional stimuli. In this paper, we report on a method of implementing virtual environments (VEs) in order to train people with schizophrenia to develop conversational skills in specific situations, which could overcome the shortcomings of or complement conventional role-playing techniques. The paper reports the efficacy of the proposed approach in a preliminary clinical trial with 10 patients with schizophrenia.     

Characteristics of social perception assessed in schizophrenia using virtual reality.

Impairment in social skills is one of the few criteria that all individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia must meet. Successful social skills require the coordination of many abilities, including social perception, which involves the decoding and interpretation of social cues from others. In this study, we examined the potential for virtual reality (VR) in social skill training. We attempted to determine if VR can be used to measure social skills and social perception, and to determine which VR parameters are related to schizophrenic symptoms. Some of these results have clear clinical relevance, while other observations need further study. The VR system appears to be useful in assessing the social perception of schizophrenics and normal people, and could be more widely used in the future for social training and in the assessment of social problem-solving abilities, assertiveness skills, and general social skills.     

Association of Parenting with Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors of College Students in India

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between parenting and sexual attitudes and behaviors of college students in India. Both physical sexual behaviors and online sexual behaviors were examined. A sub-sample of Indian college students aged 18–25 years (n?=?159; 32% female) recruited online for survey completion were the focus of this study. Two path models were performed to explore how sexual attitudes and behaviors were associated with perceived parental solicitation, trust, and warmth. Maternal and paternal influences were tested in separate models. Mothering was more strongly associated with daughters’ sexual behaviors while fathering was associated with sons. College students with liberal sexual attitudes reported engaging in more physical and online sexual behaviors. As Indian youth experience a more globalizing coming of age than previous generations, they require an extended period of parental support and involvement. Findings in the current study suggest that young adults are receptive to parental influence with warm and trusting parent–child relationships playing a significant role in shaping college students’ sexual behaviors.     

Religion and mental health among Nepal earthquake survivors in temporary tent villages

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between mental health and the perceived importance of religion and the frequency of prayer among 200 children ages 10–18 years who lived in temporary camps for earthquake survivors in Nepal. The participants were examined using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) 6–18 and were asked about the importance of religion in their lives. In contrast to expectation that high perceived importance of religion and prayer frequency have positive impacts on mental health after earthquakes, the results indicated significantly higher levels of withdrawal/depression. The group that prayed less frequently after the earthquakes had significantly higher scores for somatic symptoms, withdrawal/depression, anxiety/depression, social immaturity, internalising problems, and total CBCL scores. However, the clinical risk group (T score of 65 or higher in the CBCL total score), no significant difference according to the importance of religion showed and frequency of daily prayer.     

The Effect of Message Persistence and Disclosure on Liking in Computer-Mediated Communication

In computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems, the messages that a user types usually persist on the screen for some time, a feature that distinguishes CMC from face-to-face interaction. Persistence may activate psychological self-perception, leading communicators to infer from their persistent messaging how they feel about the subject more so than if messages did not persist. This study applies persistence and self-perception to the relationships between self-disclosure and liking. It identifies which among several disclosure or liking relationships may be most susceptible to self-perception effects. An experiment found that message persistence interacts with a conversational partner’s responses to self-disclosure and intensifies liking toward the partner. Suggestions follow for future research further exploring the mechanisms of persistence, and reconceptualizing self-perception factors in interactive media settings.     

Impaired body but not face perception in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

Background. Empirical evidence involving the processing of social information by patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) has been relatively scarce. Our study investigated the perceptual abilities of patients with OCD to recognize human faces and bodies. Method. Fifty‐four drug‐free or drug‐naïve patients with OCD and 42 healthy controls performed discrimination tasks consisting of four types of stimuli: two sets of faces that were manipulated with regard to configuration and features, human bodies, and chairs. The stimuli were presented in upright and upside‐down orientations. Results. Patients with OCD were significantly less accurate in discriminating pairs of bodily postures implying actions. However, we found no significant differences between patient and control groups in the ability to recognize faces and chairs. The inversion effects for bodies and faces were also comparable between the two groups. Conclusions. The current findings suggest that patients with OCD experience difficulty in perceiving static forms of bodily postures, but are able to adequately recognize human faces. Our data indicate a selective deficit in the perception of bodily postures in those with OCD and suggest that this deficit is probably not related to the abnormal configurational processing of social objects.     

How many dimensions underlie judgments of learning and recall? Evidence from state-trace methodology

The authors used state-trace methodology to investigate whether a single dimension (e.g., strength) is sufficient to account for recall and judgments of learning (JOLs) or whether multiple dimensions (e.g., intrinsic and extrinsic factors) are needed. The authors separately manipulated the independent variables of intrinsic and extrinsic cues, determining their state traces for recall and JOLs. In contrast to the supposition that intrinsic cues have similar effects on both recall and JOLs whereas extrinsic cues affect JOLs less strongly than recall (i.e., 2 dimensions underlying recall and JOLs), the authors found repeated support for the sufficiency of a single dimension for both recall and JOLs (not only immediate JOLs but also delayed JOLs) across a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic cues.     

A comparison of personality function among patients with seasonal depression, nonseasonal depression, and nonclinical participants

Although a large body of research has accumulated concerning the relationship between nonseasonal depression and personality, comparatively few studies have examined the relationship between seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and personality. This study compared dimensional aspects of personality in patients diagnosed with SAD (N = 60), nonseasonal depression (N = 273), and nonclinical controls (N = 297) using the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP-BQ; Livesley & Jackson, in press). Analysis by ANCOVA indicated that significant between-group differences occurred in several of the 18 DAPP-BQ dimensions, with patients with SAD exhibiting personality psychopathology that was intermediate between the nonclinical sample and patients with nonseasonal depression. The results demonstrated that the traits associated with seasonal and nonseasonal depression differ in degree, not kind.