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Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure

Saskia Davies, Tom Owen Orcid Logo, Sean Walton Orcid Logo

Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2025)

Swansea University Authors: Saskia Davies, Tom Owen Orcid Logo, Sean Walton Orcid Logo

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Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy (ET) has demonstrated invaluable therapeutic outcomes for phobic patients, particularly when supplemented with physiological sensors for internal user insights. Although much of the existing research in VR ET adopts machine learning predictions for incidental ca...

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Published in: Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2025)
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69807
first_indexed 2025-06-24T16:01:59Z
last_indexed 2025-11-05T09:57:30Z
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spelling 2025-11-04T12:37:45.1917374 v2 69807 2025-06-24 Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure d83c5159364688c1f4b7d9e656ed3f92 Saskia Davies Saskia Davies true false 9c68c1446c7e729b181aa579b3661b55 0000-0002-5150-0246 Tom Owen Tom Owen true false 0ec10d5e3ed3720a2d578417a894cf49 0000-0002-6451-265X Sean Walton Sean Walton true false 2025-06-24 MACS Virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy (ET) has demonstrated invaluable therapeutic outcomes for phobic patients, particularly when supplemented with physiological sensors for internal user insights. Although much of the existing research in VR ET adopts machine learning predictions for incidental categories of affect, we believe that a more intricate and qualitative understanding of direct phobic behavioural patterns has the potential to augment these approaches and drive more informed VR ET development.By gathering a dataset through user studies, we qualitatively explore the fine-grained physiological differences between self-reported acrophobic and non-acrophobic individuals during VR exposure to heights. Through a rigorous, complementary combination of statistical analysis and graphical visualisation, we identify several key distinctions in structural and chronological characteristics between groups, particularly in autonomic responses and facial activations. Notably, mouth movements such as lip funnelling and jaw thrusting emerge as the most practically significant indicators of acrophobic tendencies, with increasing trends and fluctuation patterns over time.Our analysis deeply and intricately explores these key behaviours as potential biomarkers of acrophobia, contributing to a more developed understanding of acrophobia-specific responses by offering insights that extend beyond quantitative measures of affect categorisation. Moving forward, progressive approaches can utilise a more direct and thorough understanding of acrophobia during treatment, which can augment the design and development of existing VR ET methods. Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2025) 0 0 0 0001-01-01 COLLEGE NANME Mathematics and Computer Science School COLLEGE CODE MACS Swansea University Not Required This work was supported by EPSRC grant number EP/S021892/1. 2025-11-04T12:37:45.1917374 2025-06-24T16:24:08.5970882 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science Saskia Davies 1 Tom Owen 0000-0002-5150-0246 2 Sean Walton 0000-0002-6451-265X 3 69807__35069__341dbe0b2a8d4f639359369d20d2d084.pdf ACII_2025.pdf 2025-09-08T10:56:59.8816349 Output 1593595 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true Author accepted manuscript document released under the terms of a Creative Commons CC-BY licence using the Swansea University Research Publications Policy (rights retention). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure
spellingShingle Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure
Saskia Davies
Tom Owen
Sean Walton
title_short Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure
title_full Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure
title_fullStr Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure
title_full_unstemmed Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure
title_sort Qualitative exploration of physiological mannerisms of acrophobia during virtual reality heights exposure
author_id_str_mv d83c5159364688c1f4b7d9e656ed3f92
9c68c1446c7e729b181aa579b3661b55
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author_id_fullname_str_mv d83c5159364688c1f4b7d9e656ed3f92_***_Saskia Davies
9c68c1446c7e729b181aa579b3661b55_***_Tom Owen
0ec10d5e3ed3720a2d578417a894cf49_***_Sean Walton
author Saskia Davies
Tom Owen
Sean Walton
author2 Saskia Davies
Tom Owen
Sean Walton
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hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
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department_str School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science
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description Virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy (ET) has demonstrated invaluable therapeutic outcomes for phobic patients, particularly when supplemented with physiological sensors for internal user insights. Although much of the existing research in VR ET adopts machine learning predictions for incidental categories of affect, we believe that a more intricate and qualitative understanding of direct phobic behavioural patterns has the potential to augment these approaches and drive more informed VR ET development.By gathering a dataset through user studies, we qualitatively explore the fine-grained physiological differences between self-reported acrophobic and non-acrophobic individuals during VR exposure to heights. Through a rigorous, complementary combination of statistical analysis and graphical visualisation, we identify several key distinctions in structural and chronological characteristics between groups, particularly in autonomic responses and facial activations. Notably, mouth movements such as lip funnelling and jaw thrusting emerge as the most practically significant indicators of acrophobic tendencies, with increasing trends and fluctuation patterns over time.Our analysis deeply and intricately explores these key behaviours as potential biomarkers of acrophobia, contributing to a more developed understanding of acrophobia-specific responses by offering insights that extend beyond quantitative measures of affect categorisation. Moving forward, progressive approaches can utilise a more direct and thorough understanding of acrophobia during treatment, which can augment the design and development of existing VR ET methods.
published_date 0001-01-01T15:33:35Z
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