It's so real: Psychophysiological reaction towards virtual reality exposure

Virtual reality (VR) technology has been utilized in various types of scientific fields. In psychology, VR is used as an alternative intervention particularly exposure therapy, in which therapists often have difficulties in maintaining client confidentiality and security when confronting them with feared situations, especially in public places. VR allows therapist to present a three-dimensional stimulus virtually, so that the risks of safety can be minimized. This study aimed to explore the effect of height stimulus presented with VR technology on physiological and psychological reactions. The research method used was a non-random pre-test and post-test experiment. Physiological reactions were measured using the ProComp5 Infiniti biofeedback system with three sensors: heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin conductance. Participants were confronted with a height environment simulated through a Head-mounted display (HMD) Oculus Rift Development Kit 2. The results indicated that there were changes in their psychological and physiological reactions. It could be concluded that exposure through VR, which is very close to brain's information processor accompanied by various sensory stimuli, is able to create conditions where individuals can really feel as if being at a real height. Changes in psychological and physiological reactions are discussed in this paper. © 2019 IEEE.