Botella C M, Juan M C, Baños R M, Alcañiz M, Guillén V, Rey B
Departmento de Psicología Básica, Clínica y Psicobiología, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain.
Cyberpsychol Behav. 2005 Apr;8(2):162-71. doi: 10.1089/cpb.2005.8.162.
Augmented reality (AR) refers to the introduction of virtual elements in the real world. That is, the person is seeing an image composed of a visualization of the real world, and a series of virtual elements that, at that same moment, are super-imposed on the real world. The most important aspect of AR is that the virtual elements supply to the person relevant and useful information that is not contained in the real world. AR has notable potential, and has already been used in diverse fields, such as medicine, the army, coaching, engineering, design, and robotics. Until now, AR has never been used in the scope of psychological treatment. Nevertheless, AR presents various advantages. Just like in the classical systems of virtual reality, it is possible to have total control over the virtual elements that are super-imposed on the real world, and how one interacts with those elements. AR could involve additional advantages; on one side it could be less expensive since it also uses the real world (this does not need to be modeled), and it could facilitate the feeling of presence (the sensation of being there), and reality judgment (the fact of judging the experience as real) of the person since the environment he or she is in, and what he or she is seeing is, in fact the "reality." In this paper, we present the data of the first case study in which AR has been used for the treatment of a specific phobia, cockroaches phobia. It addresses a system of AR that permits exposure to virtual cockroaches super-imposed on the real world. In order to carry out the exposure, the guidelines of Ost with respect to "one-session treatment" were followed. The results are promising. The participant demonstrated notable fear and avoidance in the behavioral avoidance test before the treatment, and not only was an important decrease in the scores of fear and avoidance observed after the treatment, but also the participant was capable of approaching, interacting, and killing live cockroaches immediately following the treatment. The results are maintained in a follow-up conducted 1 month after the termination of the treatment.
增强现实（AR）是指在现实世界中引入虚拟元素。也就是说，人们看到的图像是由现实世界的可视化以及在同一时刻叠加在现实世界上的一系列虚拟元素组成的。AR最重要的方面在于，虚拟元素为人们提供了现实世界中所没有的相关且有用的信息。AR具有显著的潜力，并且已经在医学、军队、教练、工程、设计和机器人技术等多个领域得到应用。到目前为止，AR从未在心理治疗领域中使用过。然而，AR具有多种优势。就像在传统的虚拟现实系统中一样，可以完全控制叠加在现实世界上的虚拟元素以及人们与这些元素的交互方式。AR可能还有其他优势；一方面，它可能成本更低，因为它也利用了现实世界（无需对其进行建模），并且它可以增强人们的临场感（身临其境的感觉）以及现实判断（将体验判断为真实的事实），因为人们所处的环境以及所看到的实际上就是“现实”。在本文中，我们展示了首个将AR用于治疗特定恐惧症——蟑螂恐惧症的案例研究数据。它介绍了一个AR系统，该系统允许人们接触叠加在现实世界上的虚拟蟑螂。为了进行暴露治疗，遵循了奥斯特关于“单次治疗”的指导方针。结果很有前景。参与者在治疗前的行为回避测试中表现出明显的恐惧和回避行为，治疗后不仅观察到恐惧和回避得分显著降低，而且参与者在治疗后能够立即接近、与活蟑螂互动并杀死它们。治疗结束1个月后的随访中，结果得以维持。
