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Applications of Virtual Reality in Clinical Psychology and Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience–An Introduction

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Virtual Reality for Psychological and Neurocognitive Interventions

Abstract

Simulation technology has a long history of adding value in aviation, military training, automotive/aircraft design, and surgical planning. In clinical psychology, Norcross et al. (2013) surveyed 70 therapy experts regarding interventions they predicted to increase in the next decade and virtual reality (VR) was ranked 4th out of 45 options, with other computer-supported methods occupying 4 out of the top 5 positions. The increased popularity of VR in the news, social media, conferences, and from innovative start-ups may give the impression that VR is something new. However, it is important to look back in time and recognize that as early as the 1960’s, Heilig proposed a multisensory immersive experienced called the Sensorama, and Sutherland and Sproull had created a stereoscopic head mounted display (HMD) (Berryman 2012; Srivastava et al. 2014). The term VR was coined more than 30 years ago by Jaron Lanier and commercial games were distributed to the public as early as 1989 by Mattel (in the US, and by PAX in Japan) for its PowerGlove™ and Nintendo’s failed Virtual Boy™ was released in 1995. Clinical VR applications were proposed as early as the mid 1990’s by Lamson, Pugnetti, Rothbaum, Riva, Rizzo, Weiss, and Wiederhold (named in alphabetical order), among others. Moreover, several scientific journals, conferences, and handbooks dedicated to the subject have been reporting scientific findings for decades.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychoeducation and Psychology/Canada Research Chair in Clinical Cyberpsychology, University of Québec in Outaouais and CISSS of Outaouais, Gatineau, Canada

    Stéphane Bouchard

  2. University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, Los Angeles, USA

    Albert “Skip” Rizzo

Authors
  1. Stéphane Bouchard
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  2. Albert “Skip” Rizzo
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Correspondence to Stéphane Bouchard .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA, USA

    Albert “Skip” Rizzo

  2. Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada

    Stéphane Bouchard

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Bouchard, S., Rizzo, A.“. (2019). Applications of Virtual Reality in Clinical Psychology and Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience–An Introduction. In: Rizzo, A.“., Bouchard, S. (eds) Virtual Reality for Psychological and Neurocognitive Interventions. Virtual Reality Technologies for Health and Clinical Applications. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9482-3_1

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