Comparing experience intensity of AR and VR for contrasting phobia stimuli

Abstract

Abstract Exposure-based therapy is a common psychological intervention for phobias and anxiety disorders, and exposure-based therapy using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have been evaluated as practical extensions of this method, producing similar experiences through modelled stimuli. This study compares participants’ responses to VR and AR exposure under different types of stimuli. The study investigates two types of fear-based stimuli: spiders and contamination, for which both VR and AR prototypes were developed. A within-subjects experimental design was employed, involving 31 participants drawn from a healthy adult student population who reported their experience intensity and qualitative feedback following exposure to virtual stimuli across both modalities. The type of technology significantly affected the experience intensity: VR elicited a significantly higher experience intensity overall, although the strength of this effect varied depending on the stimulus type. Specifically, VR produced a much stronger experience in the contamination scenario, while AR performed comparably and showed ecological advantages in the spider scenario. We suggest that future mixed-reality exposure system designs could integrate both AR and VR components in a staged approach. AR may be more suitable for early-stage or animal-focused exposure scenarios, whereas VR is better suited for scenarios that demand complete environmental control.