Virtual Reality : A tool for Training Fluency in Public Speaking ?

Background: Public speaking (PS) is a skill required in many personal and professional settings. However, a large proportion of the general and clinical population do not feel comfortable speaking in public. PS anxiety impacts oral communication. For example, disfluencies (interruptions in the flow of speech) increase as anxiety rises. Specifically, there are more filled pauses (e.g., uh) and silent pauses in anxious speech. These changes can influence the audience’s perception of the speaker. Therefore, training PS skills in representative settings is crucial but often challenging for PS professionals (e.g., speech therapists, coaches, vocologists). Objective: The present study aimed to validate a virtual meeting room with 8 animated virtual agents for PS training by assessing its ability to elicit typical PS fluency features. Methods: We analyzed the speech productions of 65 university students giving an oral presentation facing : (1) a real audience, (2) a virtual audience, and (3) an empty virtual meeting room. This third condition with no anxious stimulus was included in order to act as a control condition for the anxiety induced by immersion in virtual reality (VR). Results : Regarding the total percentage of typical disfluencies, no significant differences were found between conditions in the repeated measures ANOVA. Regarding the total percentage of filled pauses, we found a significant difference between conditions. We observed a significant difference between condition 1 and 2 as well as between 1 and 3. For both parameters, correlational analysis showed a stronger correlation between conditions 1 and 2 than between 1 and 3. Therefore, speaking in front of a virtual audience seems to be a better predictor of real PS performance than speaking in front of an empty room. Conclusion : Virtual reality could be a useful tool for PS training as it provides an accessible, customizable and safe environment that adequately predicts real public speaking performance.