[ENGAGE Distinguished Lecture] Psychological Science X Virtual Reality: A Formula for Health Innovation
Speaker
Susan Persky PhDLocation
Psychology 1312 (Sage Room)Info
The interplay between virtual reality (VR) technology and psychological science represents a powerful opportunity, enabling unique ways of bridging laboratory precision with real-world and clinical relevance. This presentation draws from two decades of work to demonstrate how immersive technologies like VR are revolutionizing research, education, and practice in health and medicine. Based in extensive research on clinical simulation and behavioral measurement, we will examine how VR enables novel approaches to the study of critical health psychology topics including patient-provider interaction, effective communication about the future of genomic medicine, and health behavior intervention and assessment. This work leverages validated VR environments designed to capture nuanced behavioral data while maintaining ecological validity in areas such as food choice behavior and clinical decision-making. The talk will explore how individual differences and motivational states moderate users’ experiences in VR settings, and how this can be leveraged for the development of precision interventions. Looking forward, we’ll discuss emerging research needs and opportunities as VR is more widely deployed in healthcare and beyond, and as it converges with AI, biosensors and the future internet. We’ll conclude by examining crucial psychological considerations for balancing technological innovation with privacy, autonomy, and equity.
