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Virtual reality facial emotion recognition in social environments : An eye-tracking study

Geraets, C. N.W. LU ; Klein Tuente, S. LU ; Lestestuiver, B. P. ; van Beilen, M. ; Nijman, S. A. ; Marsman, J. B.C. and Veling, W. (2021) In Internet Interventions 25.
Abstract

Background: Virtual reality (VR) enables the administration of realistic and dynamic stimuli within a social context for the assessment and training of emotion recognition. We tested a novel VR emotion recognition task by comparing emotion recognition across a VR, video and photo task, investigating covariates of recognition and exploring visual attention in VR. Methods: Healthy individuals (n = 100) completed three emotion recognition tasks; a photo, video and VR task. During the VR task, emotions of virtual characters (avatars) in a VR street environment were rated, and eye-tracking was recorded in VR. Results: Recognition accuracy in VR (overall 75%) was comparable to the photo and video task. However, there were some differences;... (More)

Background: Virtual reality (VR) enables the administration of realistic and dynamic stimuli within a social context for the assessment and training of emotion recognition. We tested a novel VR emotion recognition task by comparing emotion recognition across a VR, video and photo task, investigating covariates of recognition and exploring visual attention in VR. Methods: Healthy individuals (n = 100) completed three emotion recognition tasks; a photo, video and VR task. During the VR task, emotions of virtual characters (avatars) in a VR street environment were rated, and eye-tracking was recorded in VR. Results: Recognition accuracy in VR (overall 75%) was comparable to the photo and video task. However, there were some differences; disgust and happiness had lower accuracy rates in VR, and better accuracy was achieved for surprise and anger in VR compared to the video task. Participants spent more time identifying disgust, fear and sadness than surprise and happiness. In general, attention was directed longer to the eye and nose areas than the mouth. Discussion: Immersive VR tasks can be used for training and assessment of emotion recognition. VR enables easily controllable avatars within environments relevant for daily life. Validated emotional expressions and tasks will be of relevance for clinical applications.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Affect, Avatars, Emotion, Emotion recognition, Eye-tracking, Virtual reality
in
Internet Interventions
volume
25
article number
100432
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85110623695
ISSN
2214-7829
DOI
10.1016/j.invent.2021.100432
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors
id
b6a9b534-12c7-4259-9e8e-e1ec741af1d1
date added to LUP
2024-10-21 10:45:23
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:37:32
@article{b6a9b534-12c7-4259-9e8e-e1ec741af1d1,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: Virtual reality (VR) enables the administration of realistic and dynamic stimuli within a social context for the assessment and training of emotion recognition. We tested a novel VR emotion recognition task by comparing emotion recognition across a VR, video and photo task, investigating covariates of recognition and exploring visual attention in VR. Methods: Healthy individuals (n = 100) completed three emotion recognition tasks; a photo, video and VR task. During the VR task, emotions of virtual characters (avatars) in a VR street environment were rated, and eye-tracking was recorded in VR. Results: Recognition accuracy in VR (overall 75%) was comparable to the photo and video task. However, there were some differences; disgust and happiness had lower accuracy rates in VR, and better accuracy was achieved for surprise and anger in VR compared to the video task. Participants spent more time identifying disgust, fear and sadness than surprise and happiness. In general, attention was directed longer to the eye and nose areas than the mouth. Discussion: Immersive VR tasks can be used for training and assessment of emotion recognition. VR enables easily controllable avatars within environments relevant for daily life. Validated emotional expressions and tasks will be of relevance for clinical applications.</p>}},
  author       = {{Geraets, C. N.W. and Klein Tuente, S. and Lestestuiver, B. P. and van Beilen, M. and Nijman, S. A. and Marsman, J. B.C. and Veling, W.}},
  issn         = {{2214-7829}},
  keywords     = {{Affect; Avatars; Emotion; Emotion recognition; Eye-tracking; Virtual reality}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Internet Interventions}},
  title        = {{Virtual reality facial emotion recognition in social environments : An eye-tracking study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2021.100432}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.invent.2021.100432}},
  volume       = {{25}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}