(FUVEST - 2002 - 1a fase)IF PUBLIC speaking gives
(FUVEST - 2002 - 1a fase)
IF PUBLIC speaking gives you the willies, the chances are you’ll be just as scared of virtual people, experts have discovered. But in the long run these “avatars” will help you overcome your fears.
Mel Slater at University College London, and his colleague David-Paul Pertaub have developed a VR environment to help people overcome their phobias. In their virtual seminar room, people have to give a presentation to eight computer-generated people who can appear by turns fascinated, bored stiff or just annoyingly neutral.
While it’s not the first time VR has been used to treat phobias, such as fear of spiders or flying, no one knew if the technique could also help people to overcome their social phobias.
To find out, Pertaub watched how people behave in seminars and programmed the virtual people to do the same things: crossing their arms, frowning, yawning and putting their feet on the table. “Our negative audience is very negative,” says Slater.
Then Slater and Pertaub compared the performances of 43 volunteers who gave a talk either to an attentive audience or to an unenthusiastic one. Surprisingly, the subjects responded as if the avatars were real.
21 July 2001• New Scientist • www.newscientist.com.
Which of these statements is true according to the passage?
Pertaub discovered that virtual reality could be used to treat extreme fears by watching how people behave in seminars.
Slater and Pertaub were amazed to see the response of the attentive audience to the volunteers ’ talks.
Despite their fears, the 43 subjects had a surprising performance when exposed to the virtual audience.
Pertaub programmed the computer-generated people to behave the way people do in seminars.
Pertaub watched people ’ s behaviour in seminars to help social phobics to adopt the same behaviour.
