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New Virtual Reality lab for psychologists

Exposing people with eating disorders to food or virtual kitchens to determine the environmental factors that stimulate appetite. Simulating a robbery to determine which physical traits passersby remember of the perpetrator. These are only two examples of the research that will be conducted in the new Virtual Reality lab at the UM Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience (FPN). The lab will be officially opened on 10 November with a short symposium and various demonstrations.

The lab can create a virtual 3-D environment in which, thanks to a combination of innovative techniques, participants can move around and a realistic perception of reality can be created. Someone with a fear of heights, for example, can cross a simulated bridge spanning a deep ravine and genuinely experience the fears that would plague them in reality.

Technique
This 3-D visualisation is created using a Head Mounted Device (HMD, similar to watching 3-D television with 3-D glasses) and an automated tracking and 3-D sound system. This gives researchers the opportunity to conduct experiments in a controlled virtual environment. 

The Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience also plans to research how our brain filters relevant information from conversations in a noisy environment and whether applied therapy techniques really work on convicted paedophiles. They are also examining whether scent can be introduced to the lab, which could prove useful for research on eating disorders.

The lab is funded by the FPN and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).