The Effects of Dog Interactions in Virtual Reality for the Purposes of Stress Reduction

ABSTRACT

It is only in recent decades that the historical and anecdotal therapeutic benefits of dog human interactions have been quantified through scientific testing and investigation. However, the field faces many design challenges inherent to the use of live animals. To address these methodological limitations, the present study used virtual reality and a flatscreen monitor to present visual stimuli of a real dog to participants. Regarding the visual stimuli, the dog either exclusively explored the environment or frequently engaged in eye contact while exploring. This study investigated three hypotheses: First, participants in the VR condition will experience a greater reduction in stress than those participants in the 2D condition. Second, Participants will feel more present in the condition in which the dog makes eye contact with them. And third, reductions in stress will be greater among participants in the eye contact and VR condition. Participants first completed a pre-State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and an Animal Attitude Scale before being exposed to the visual stimuli. After the video had concluded participants completed a post-STAI and a Presence Questionnaire. Data analysis supported hypothesis one, revealing a significant main effect for presentation type for both dependent variables (presence and difference STAI-scores). These findings provide some of the first experimental support for the use of VR dogs in place of real dogs in human-animal interaction and animal-assisted therapy research and further experiments should be conducted to assess the potential use of the VR dog.

Below you can view comments and questions (along with responses from the researcher) that were posted during the active virtual conference.

Contact: sfox358@mtroyal.ca