Category: Environment

University

In this case, when the scene begins the patient appears in the hallway of a university. The students that appear speaking will be between 18 and 30 years. This will allow you to intervene with exam anxiety with young people and adults who present this same problem. When entering the classroom the patient will be able to see a projector in the background and the organization of the desks will be the one that you can see in universities.

Since this environment is intended for adults, it can also be used to work in other, non-strictly university situations, such as, for example, entrance and public exams.

SCENES

SETTINGS VARIABLES

AVATAR

Gender
Choose between a male or female body. A neutral body is selected by default.

Skin tone
Choose the skin tone that best represents your patient to enhance the feeling of immersion.

ATTENDANCE

Alone / A few students / A lot of students
Depending on the option we select, the type and the amount of ambient sound will change. 

With this configuration variable, you can regulate the levels of anxiety and distractors. In general, more people and more noise, lead to more difficulty.

Difficulty

Easy 

• Easier questions
• Relaxed students
• Calm and friendly teacher

Hard

• Difficult questions
• Anxious students
• Serious and controlling teacher

The easy configuration can be used in the early stages of the intervention, where you are seeking anxiety reduction in an environment that does not generate excessively high levels of anxiety.

Exam subject

Psychology
“Psychoeducation about test anxiety and social anxiety”

Natural Sciences and Biology
“Autoimmunity and Immunopathology”

History and Law
“The Spanish Constitution”

Each one of these exams will consist of 10 questions, most of them true / false type.

Duration

Short / Long
This last variable is related to the duration of the test. If we choose “short” the test will last only five minutes, while if we choose “long”, the test will be about twenty minutes.

EVENTS

• Teacher appears
  At the beginning of the session, the environment is the hallway of the high school/university, and an intelligible murmur is heard among the students who are waiting. When the event is activated, the teacher appears at one end of the hallway. As he approaches, he greets the patient with a gesture and invites the students to come into the classroom. Right after that, he proceeds to enter into the classroom and at the same time the murmur decreases until it reaches a normal level.  

• Enter classroom
  Once this event is triggered, a fade to black will occur and the patient will appear seated at the classroom table, ready to perform the exam.

Once in the classroom, the teacher will be waiting for the test to begin. The students will be reviewing or waiting for the test to begin, so the general murmur will be low and unintelligible. 

• Start exam
  When this event is activated, the test will be performed. The general murmur that could be heard is almost completely eliminated, and in the tablet placed on the desk in front of the patient will appear the first question of the test. This question will have two possible interactive answers, so to answer the question the patient should use visual control in the same way that he/she used it when entering the test classroom.

After the patient has selected one of the two available answers, the next question will appear, and the patient should follow the same interactive procedure to answer. When choosing one of the options, the third question will appear, and so on up to completing the ten questions.

In addition to the questions of the test and the corresponding answers, on the tablet will appear, at all times, the remaining time to finish the test. The time in question will depend on the configuration of the difficulty variable.

Throughout the development of the test, in case of having selected that there are people present, some students will finish their test announcing it aloud to the teacher (they will not move from their place). Depending on the difficulty level selected, there will be more or fewer students completing the test.

Once the test time expires, it will automatically be passed to the test completion event, described below. 

• Finish exam
  By activating this event, the teacher will finish the test with a fade to black. The teacher will reappear in the hallway with the tablet visible, being able to see the test result on the screen. At this point, the general murmur among the students in the hallway will again be intelligible.

School

At the beginning of this scene, the patient is in the hall of a high school, so the people that appear are teenagers (between 14 and 17 years). Therefore, this environment will be suitable for adolescents of this age who are anxious about performing a test. When entering the classroom, the patient will sit at one of the multiple tables and will be ready to begin the test.

SCENES

SETTINGS VARIABLES

AVATAR

Gender
Choose between a male or female body. A neutral body is selected by default.

Skin tone
Choose the skin tone that best represents your patient to enhance the feeling of immersion.

Attendance

Alone / A few students / A lot of students
Depending on the option we select, the type and the amount of ambient sound will change. 

With this configuration variable, you can regulate the levels of anxiety and distractors. In general, more people and more noise, lead to more difficulty.

Difficulty

Easy 

• Easier questions
• Relaxed students
• Calm and friendly teacher

Hard

• Difficult questions
• Anxious students
• Serious and controlling teacher

The easy configuration can be used in the early stages of the intervention, where you are seeking anxiety reduction in an environment that does not generate excessively high levels of anxiety.

Exam subject

Psychology
“Psychoeducation about test anxiety and social anxiety”

Natural Sciences and Biology
“The cell”

History and Law
“The recent Spain”

Each one of these exams will consist of 10 questions, most of them true / false type.

Duration

Short / Long
This last variable is related to the duration of the test. If we choose “short” the test will last only five minutes, while if we choose “long”, the test will be about twenty minutes.

EVENTS

• Teacher appears
  At the beginning of the session, the environment is the hallway of the high school/university, and an intelligible murmur is heard among the students who are waiting. When the event is activated, the teacher appears at one end of the hallway. As he approaches, he greets the patient with a gesture and invites the students to come into the classroom. Right after that, he proceeds to enter into the classroom and at the same time the murmur decreases until it reaches a normal level.  

• Enter classroom
  Once this event is triggered, a fade to black will occur and the patient will appear seated at the classroom table, ready to perform the exam.

Once in the classroom, the teacher will be waiting for the test to begin. The students will be reviewing or waiting for the test to begin, so the general murmur will be low and unintelligible. 

• Start exam
  When this event is activated, the test will be performed. The general murmur that could be heard is almost completely eliminated, and in the tablet placed on the desk in front of the patient will appear the first question of the test. This question will have two possible interactive answers, so to answer the question the patient should use visual control in the same way that he/she used it when entering the test classroom.

After the patient has selected one of the two available answers, the next question will appear, and the patient should follow the same interactive procedure to answer. When choosing one of the options, the third question will appear, and so on up to completing the ten questions.

In addition to the questions of the test and the corresponding answers, on the tablet will appear, at all times, the remaining time to finish the test. The time in question will depend on the configuration of the difficulty variable.

Throughout the development of the test, in case of having selected that there are people present, some students will finish their test announcing it aloud to the teacher (they will not move from their place). Depending on the difficulty level selected, there will be more or fewer students completing the test.

Once the test time expires, it will automatically be passed to the test completion event, described below. 

• Finish exam
  By activating this event, the teacher will finish the test with a fade to black. The teacher will reappear in the hallway with the tablet visible, being able to see the test result on the screen. At this point, the general murmur among the students in the hallway will again be intelligible.

Family health

They are giving the weather broadcast on the television. The weatherman is talking about the heavy rains that are taking place, and talks about the dangers; he also explains recommendations and safety precautions to keep in mind due to the storm (as for example, to not take the car if it can be avoided). At the end, he speaks of a car crash that has taken place and about its victims.
The situation allows to work with the patient for example, on the excessive fear that something bad will happen to a loved one

These scenes have no configuration variables. In addition, each scene, as in the other environments, has the possibility of practicing relaxation exercises in the section Relax.

VARIABLES SETTINGS

The configuration variables will allow modifying the environment to suit each patient and each phase, be it the evaluation or the treatment phase. For this, you will have the same configuration variables available, explained below:

• Gender
  Choose between a male or female body. A neutral body is selected by default.

• Skin tone
  Choose the skin tone that best represents your patient to enhance the feeling of immersion.

Babies’ health

The is a televised debate about babies care. Topics like what to eat and how, aspects of sleep and illness (with data of hospitalized children for example) are discussed.
While the patient is watching the debate program, child’s sobs are heard through the intercom which is on the coffee table (from issuing normal sounds until it begins to mourn with increasing intensity).
It is specially indicated for patients whose main worrying is that something bad may occur to their children.

These scenes have no configuration variables. In addition, each scene, as in the other environments, has the possibility of practicing relaxation exercises in the section Relax.

VARIABLES SETTINGS

The configuration variables will allow modifying the environment to suit each patient and each phase, be it the evaluation or the treatment phase. For this, you will have the same configuration variables available, explained below:

• Gender
  Choose between a male or female body. A neutral body is selected by default.

• Skin tone
  Choose the skin tone that best represents your patient to enhance the feeling of immersion.

Thinking about getting sick

In this case, it is also watching an informative discussion, but this time is about disease risk. At the beginning they will talk about heart attacks (high blood pressure, habits, stress, genetic factors, age, symptoms…). And later they will discuss cancer. Note that, from the beginning, the patient will have medical results, on the coffee table, plus a bottle of pills.
This scene is specially indicated to work on the overestimation of probability of a negative event may occur. And also to treat excessive worrying for health matters.

These scenes have no configuration variables. In addition, each scene, as in the other environments, has the possibility of practicing relaxation exercises in the section Relax.

SETTINGS VARIABLES

The configuration variables will allow modifying the environment to suit each patient and each phase, be it the evaluation or the treatment phase. For this, you will have the same configuration variables available, explained below:

• Gender
  Choose between a male or female body. A neutral body is selected by default.

• Skin tone
  Choose the skin tone that best represents your patient to enhance the feeling of immersion.

Children’s health

This scene is designed to work on the anxiety that gives some people the fact of leaving their children’s care to others. It is playing a debate program about supervision and children’s care. They talk about issues such as leaving them with a babysitter or relatives, several accidents, school trips, etc. Note that in the patient’s visual field there are elements such as a ball, which makes assume he or she has a son or a daughter. Whilst the patient is listening to the debate, a message from the school on the voicemail is received requesting an urgent callback.

These scenes have no configuration variables. In addition, each scene, as in the other environments, has the possibility of practicing relaxation exercises in the section Relax.

VARIABLES SETTINGS

The configuration variables will allow modifying the environment to suit each patient and each phase, be it the evaluation or the treatment phase. For this, you will have the same configuration variables available, explained below:

• Gender
  Choose between a male or female body. A neutral body is selected by default.

• Skin tone
  Choose the skin tone that best represents your patient to enhance the feeling of immersion.