Abstract
Good public speaking skills are essential in many professions as well as everyday life, but speech anxiety is a common problem. While it is established that public speaking training in Virtual Reality is effective, comprehensive studies on the underlying factors that contribute to this success are rare. The QUEST-VR framework for evaluation of VR applications is presented that includes system features, user factors, and moderating variables. Based on this framework, variables that are postulated to influence the quality of a public speaking training application were selected for a first validation study. In a cross-sectional, repeated measures laboratory study (N = 36 undergraduate students; 36% men, 64% women, mean age = 26.42 years (SD = 3.42)), the effects of task difficulty (independent variable), ability to concentrate, fear of public speaking, and social presence (covariates) on public speaking performance (dependent variable) in a virtual training scenario were analyzed, using stereoscopic visualization on a screen. The results indicate that the covariates moderate the effect of task difficulty on speech performance, turning it into a non-significant effect. Further interrelations are explored. The presenter’s reaction to the virtual agents in the audience shows a tendency of overlap of explained variance with task difficulty. This underlines the need for more studies dedicated to the interaction of contributing factors for determining the quality of VR public speaking applications.
Highlights
Virtual reality (VR) technology as a tool offers great possibilities for training and therapy purposes
In comparison with traditional methods, they provide further advantages: stimulus presentation can be controlled and adapted to the clients’ progress, the scenarios are safe and minimize consequences of mistakes and are, often more acceptable, and virtual agents can be integrated into applications that aim at the training of social interactions (Wiederhold and Wiederhold, 2005b)
A considerable amount of research was conducted on VR applications in a clinical context, investigating the use of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for anxiety disorders
Summary
Virtual reality (VR) technology as a tool offers great possibilities for training and therapy purposes. Transferred to the public speaking context, task difficulty is constituted of several dimensions, for example, the content of the speech (e.g., giving a talk on countries visited during a vacation vs presenting the results of a scientific study), preparation (how much time was invested in preparing and rehearsing the talk; Menzel and Carrell, 1994), presentation (reading from a script vs talking freely), and audience characteristics [e.g., formal or casual audience members; see Morreale et al (2007)]. Given the well-established research and development as well as the increasing implementation of such public speaking applications, there is a need for integrative approaches to evaluate VR social anxiety treatments or trainings. Task difficulty (system factor) and ability to concentrate (user state) were selected, because state of research shows that these aspects affect performance in real-life, and (social) presence (moderating factor) is claimed to be a key factor in VR scenarios. H3: SP, fear of public speaking, and ability to concentrate influence the relation between task difficulty and speech-giving performance in VR
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
