Abstract :
[en] Background. Public speaking is one of the most feared activities (Furmark, 2002). Speaker’s anxiety influences their communication performance. While the literature highlights the benefits of public speaking training, is complex to implement in real -life (Goberman et al., 2011). Hence, virtual reality (VR) could be a viable alternative tool (Owens & Beidel, 2015).
The aim of this study was to validate a virtual audience for public speaking by assessing its qualities (i.e., feeling of presence and cybersickness) and its ability to elicit emotional (i.e., anxiety) and behavioral (i.e., dysfluencies) reactions.
Methodology. Forty participants without social anxiety (attested to by the PRCS, Heeren et al., 2013 ; LSAS-SR, Heeren et al., 2012 ; and BFNE-S, Rodebaugh et al., 2004) or fluency disorders (confirmed by the SSI-4, Riley, 2009) were recruited. They had to give an oral presentation under three counterbalanced conditions (in an empty virtual conference room and in front of virtual and real audiences). We aimed to analyze their speech and anxiety and the quality of VR. Due to the health crisis, this methodology was only pre-tested on 8 participants.
However, positive results, including a sufficient feeling of presence and the lack of cybersickness, suggest that this virtual audience can be a relevant tool.
Conclusions. The methodology will be discussed in light of these first positive results, on the one hand, and of the characteristics that can be improved (realism of the virtual audience and methodological limits), on the other hand, for the benefit of future studies.
References
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Goberman, A. M., Hughes, S., & Haydock, T. (2011). Acoustic characteristics of public speaking: Anxiety and practice effects. Speech Communication, 53(6), 867–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2011.02.005
Heeren, A., Ceschi, G., Valentiner, D. P., Dethier, V., & Philippot, P. (2013). Assessing public speaking fear with the short form of the personal report of confidence as a speaker scale: Confirmatory factor analyses among a French-speaking community sample. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 9, 609–618. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S43097
Heeren, A., Maurage, P., Rossignol, M., Vanhaelen, M., Peschard, V., Eeckhout, C., & Philippot, P. (2012). Self-report version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale: Psychometric properties of the French version. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 44(2), 99–107. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026249
Owens, M. E., & Beidel, D. C. (2015). Can virtual reality effectively elicit distress associated with social anxiety disorder? Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 37(2), 296–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-014-9454-x
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