The use of virtual reality in clinical psychology research: Focusing on approach and avoidance behaviors

This chapter presents research that is laying a foundation for new simulation applications that promise learning-oriented treatments for mental health conditions. After presenting background on their technologies and measurement techniques, the authors describe experimental applications of this approach. Analysis of negative and positive responses to virtual reality (VR) stimuli, as well as their complex composites, can lead to a better understanding of patient responses, including fundamental perceptual and cognitive causal relationships. Measuring patients' dynamic parameters in VR simulations can possibly lead to new treatment approaches for psychopathologies The biological and behavioral feedback obtained by virtual mediation, based on parameters of the perceptivo-motor dynamics such those described in this chapter, represents a promising avenue for future investigation. © 2010, IGI Global.