Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½

Research

Interdisciplinary Research

2014 – Present

• Virtual Reality Behavioral Simulators: Decade long cross-disciplinary partnership with the Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dept. of Psychology. My directed focused study courses develop Oculus (now MetaQuest) IVETs and in 2023 migrated to their new hardware and added a male and female police avatar along with additional interactor avatar animations. This brings the current total to eight IVETs deployed in behavioral psychology research including voice modulation capabilities and a participant stress meter for role-play scenarios to study of causal pathways linking race-related stress reactivity and addictive behaviors, and reach into high-schools and address risky teen behaviors for “The Avatars Project”, and the behavioral research for the “Female Avatar Project” used to assess bystanders' responses when confronted with a situation that could lead to another individual getting hurt, as well as and “My Voice, My Choice” used to reduce the incidence of sexual violence in adolescent girls.
  
  My individual research area is developing a new grounded theory of hybrid orthosocial-parasocial relationships between anthropomorphic avatar dyads in VR for which my ongoing study found the mediated communication in the dyadic IVE enabled an authentic interpersonal relationship that embodied elements of both orthosocial and parasocial relationship phenomenology. Specifically, I observed that marionetting, as a dyadic design heuristic of an IVE communication construct, enabled real-time UX interactivity of behavioral ecological validity between the participant and the interactor’s avatar appropriate to engage the willing suspension of disbelief. By definition, this reciprocated interactive communication with a mediated persona, while virtual in appearance and synthetic in voice, was enough to consider it for a separate threshold of orthosocial relationship, a mutually reciprocal interpersonal relationship between a consumer and mediated virtual persona. My study also found that a positive increase in a behavioral skill after using VR as a medium to practice the skill was predicted by the strength of the subjects’ parasocial relationship to their partner’s mediated virtual human avatar persona. And confirmed by this study’s design, a relationship with a fictional persona that was one-sided on the part of the subject, the stylized humanoid form of the mediated interactor virtual avatar marionette, was enough to establish a parasocial interaction response. The analysis showed that the virtual human persona dyad generated the theorized effect of parasocial interaction, in which a person’s behavior is influenced by interacting with a fictional media persona. Expressly, the social science methodological anticipated influential effect of more accurate and realistic subject self-assessments accompanied by a directed activity (compared to only a survey recall method), were consistent with this study’s quantitative results.
   
• My Voice My Choice Virtual Reality Simulation, Parking Lot
  Guildhall student developers: Matt Milner, Kevin Morris, Marcelo Raimbault
  Guildhall faculty developers: E. Stringer, B. Fisher, J. Farrell
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dedman Department of Psychology researchers: L. Simpson, E. Jouriles

• The Female Avatars Project Virtual Reality Simulation, Parking Lot
  Guildhall student developers: Mitchell Massey
  Guildhall faculty developers: E. Stringer, B. Fisher, J. Farrell
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dedman Department of Psychology researcher: E. Jouriles
  
  
• The Female Avatars Project Virtual Reality Simulation, House Party and High-School Hallway
  Guildhall student developers: Conor Dalton, Justin Gibbs
  Guildhall faculty developers: E. Stringer, B. Fisher, N. Heitzman
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dedman Department of Psychology researchers: E. Jouriles, K. Sargent
  
  
• The Female Avatars Project Virtual Reality Simulation, High-School Avatars
  Guildhall student developers: Conor Dalton, Justin Gibbs
  Guildhall faculty developers: E. Stringer, B. Fisher, N. Heitzman
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dedman Department of Psychology researchers: E. Jouriles, K. Sargent
  
  
• The Avatars Projects Virtual Reality Simulations, House Party and High-School Hallway
  Guildhall student developer: Jaylin Weston Wong
  Guildhall faculty developers: E. Stringer, B. Fisher, N. Heitzman
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dedman Department of Psychology researcher: E. Jouriles
  
  
• Racism-Related Social Interactions Virtual Reality Simulation, House Party
  Guildhall student developer: David Rosario
  Guildhall Faculty developer E. Stringer
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dedman Department of Psychology researchers: P. Lui, S. Pham
  
  
• Emotional Intelligence Improv Dyads using Avatars, House Back Porch
  Guildhall student research assistant: Emma Anderson
  Guildhall researcher: E. Stringer
  
  
• Fostering Police and Citizen Communication through Empathy, House Party and High-School Hallway
  Guildhall student developer:  Juan Ospina Bustamante
  Guildhall Faculty developers: E. Stringer, B. Fisher
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Dedman Department of Psychology researchers. E. Jouriles, R. McDonald
   
  
  

Dissertation:

I designed four behavioral simulation role-play IVEs in collaboration with clinical psychologists Dr. Ernie Jouriles and Dr. Priscilla Lui in the Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Department of Psychology, Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Guildhall art faculty Boris Fisher (two original art faculty developers, Nick Heitzman and Joel Farrell, have since moved on to other pursuits), and Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Guildhall graduate student software development teams. My research collaborations came into fruition due to a previous partnership between the behavioral researchers in Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½’s Department of Psychology and game development faculty at Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Guildhall that sought to explore the use of VR in behavioral research. Eleven years prior to my involvement, an IVE developed for the Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Department of Psychology by Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Guildhall, “My Voice, My Choice”, successfully guided subjects to respond to unwanted sexual overtures in order to reduce the incidence of sexual violence in adolescent girls. The research study findings of Dr. Lorelei Simpson Rowe, Dr. Ernest Jouriles, and Dr. Rene McDonald were published in 2015 (“Reducing Sexual Victimization Among Adolescent Girls: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial of My Voice, My Choice” in the journal Behavior Therapy) using the original IVE, but the software program became out-of-date and some of the hardware was failing. In light of the consistent results in behavioral change studies, Dr. Jouriles and I agreed to assemble another research and development team to update their 11-year-old third-generation VR tools (the eMagin VR headset) and re-fresh the graphics (the Half-Life game engine) for the simulation in order to continue to study with fourth-generation IVETs. For the first updated IVE, we built a completely new Unity engine virtual environment with a pre-release Oculus dk1 development VR headset. For the virtual environment design, The Parking Lot, we modeled a generic mid-priced sedan parked in an urban setting and modeled and animated four male avatar interactor options and one nonspecific female and one nonspecific male participant avatar (clothed legs and torso only). The researchers used the same role-play “My Voice, My Choice” scenario scripts as the original simulation. The Parking Lot IVE new feature options requested and completed for the study included: change of time of day from day to night option, change of weather by adding rain with multiple rates of descent options, change the number of cars in the parking lot, and add a spatially oriented sound cue trigger of a cat screech and a trash can falling over to the right of the subject’s position. A year later, in The Parking Lot IVE, we upgraded the computer hardware and updated to the pre-release Oculus dk2 development VR headset. We then created “The Female Avatars Project”, for which we modeled and animated four new female avatar interactor options and added additional animations for the existing four male avatar interactor options. Kristen Yule and Kelli Sargent, doctoral student behavioral researchers in Dr. Jouriles department, then designed new scenarios with male and female interactor role-play simulations that integrated enhanced training in bystander responses when confronted with a situation that could lead to another individual getting hurt. Their research study findings were published in 2016 in the Journal of Adolescent of Health. In the following year, the next IVE’s built were the “The Avatar Projects” and we upgraded the computer hardware and updated to the ready-to-be released consumer Oculus VR headset. For one new virtual environment design, The Backyard Porch, we modeled a suburban back porch set during a house party. For the second new virtual environment design, The Highschool Hallway, we modeled a high-school stairwell situated next to a locker hallway. We also texture aged-down all eight of the avatar interactors a few years in order to extend the role-play IVE behavioral simulations reach into high-schools and reanimated all the avatars in both new IVEs. Kelli Sargent, a doctoral student behavioral researcher in Dr. Jouriles department, designed new role-play scenarios to address risky teen behaviors. Their research study findings on developing resistance to antisocial peer pressure were published in 2018 in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. In 2019 and 2020, we upgraded the computer hardware and updated to the second release of the consumer Oculus Rift VR headset using The Backyard Porch IVE and added alcohol and drug props along with scenario specific character animations for both the male and female avatar interactors. For user research (UR), we exposed variables to track the simulation session start and end times, and added a stress meter that tracked input from the joystick on the handheld Oculus Touch controller that was used by the participant to press and hold when feeling stress during the simulation scenario. Assistant Professor in the Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Department of Psychology, Dr. Pricilla Lui, and a doctoral student, Savannah Pham, designed new-role play scenarios to explore the effect of microaggressions on stress-related negative behaviors. With Dr. Jouriles, the pilot study findings on the effects of racial discrimination on stress and alcohol craving were published in 2020 in the journal Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and the follow-up article “Advancing Knowledge on the Health Consequences of Discrimination: The Potential of Virtual Reality” was accepted by the same journal in November of 2020. Due to COVID-19 IRB protocols surrounding in-person testing in 2020, we reconfigured the IVET so it could be controlled by one researcher in the lab, and the participant while in their own separate location could download the scene to their computer and use their personal VR headset (only an Oculus Rift) to login with protected credentials via a peer-to-peer network. Upon completion of the full-study in April of 2023, the researchers submitted the results for the article to the journal.

[139] K. S. Sargent, E. N. Jouriles, M. Chmielewski, and R. McDonald, “Using virtual reality to create an observational assessment of adolescent resistance to antisocial peer pressure,” Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 1537-4416 print, pp. 1 - 12, Aug. 2018.

[149] E. N. Jouriles, D. Rosenfield, K. Yule, K. S. Sargent, and R. McDonald, “Predicting high-school students’ bystander behavior in simulated dating violence situations,” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 345 - 351, Mar. 2016.

[150] L. S. Rowe, E. N. Jouriles, and R. McDonald, “Reducing sexual victimization among adolescent girls: a randomized controlled pilot trial of my voice, my choice,” Behavior Therapy, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 315 - 327, May 2015.

Lui, P., Storz-Stringer, E., & Jouriles, E. (in review Oct. 25, 2023).Virtual reality in research designed to induce stress: ethical considerations and data on participants’ perspectives.

Lui, P. P., Gobrial, S., Stringer, E., & Jouriles, E. N. (in press Oct. 5, 2023). Effects of racial discrimination on stress, negative emotions, and alcohol craving: a registered report of a virtual reality experiment. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.

Lui, P., Storz-Stringer, E., & Jouriles, E. (2023). Advancing knowledge on the health consequences of discrimination: the potential of virtual reality. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 29(1), 96-105. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000460

 

2015 – 2019

• Motion Capture Video Games for Learning Geometry: Multi-organizational partnership with the Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Lyle School of Computer Engineering under a research grant from Dr. Candace Walkington of Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Simmons School of Education and Development for Hidden Village, a full-body gesture motion capture technology game to create and evaluate learning outcomes in the “math in motion” geometry adventure game. In my thesis, internship, and directed focus study courses, Guildhall students worked with the educational research team and with other faculty at the University of Wisconsin. We used the Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Guildhall Summer Academy to usability test the game across multiple iterations. 2019’s refresh of this game includes a new narrative, written by alumna Guildhall level designer and new art created by alumni Guildhall artist.
  
  
• Hidden Village XR Engine, PC version
  Guildhall student developers: Katie Wood
  Guildhall alumni developers: Shoham Charikar
  Guildhall faculty advisor: E. Stringer
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Simmons Department of Teaching and Learning researcher: C. Walkington
  
  
• Hidden Village Unity Engine, Xbox Kinect version
  Guildhall student developers: Brian B., Andrew Curley, John Wilson, Dylan Fansler
  Guildhall faculty developer: E. Stringer
  Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½ Simmons Department of Teaching and Learning researcher: C. Walkington
  
  

Research Grants 

• September 12, 2023 – July 31, 2027 (Funded, Award ID R01DA058626) Lui, P. (Principal), Jouriles, E. (Co-Principal), Stringer, E. (Co-Principal), “Effects of Direct and Vicarious Discrimination on Alcohol and Cannabis Cravings: Virtual Reality Experiment“, Sponsored by NIH, National Institute of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, $2,586,115
  
  SPECIFIC AIMS: Alcohol and cannabis are the most misused psychoactive substances in the United States.1 Individuals who drink are more likely to use cannabis, and vice versa.2 Given the negative physical, personal, and social consequences of the misuse of alcohol and cannabis, their use and co-use are critical public health concerns.3 African Americans are more likely than Whites to use cannabis, and to meet diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD), and their co-occurrence.4-7 Still, African Americans remain underrepresented in biomedical research and health services. Racism may function to sustain ethnoracial disparities in substance use and misuse. Direct interpersonal experiences with discrimination (i.e., being victimized personally) are linked to African Americans’ alcohol and cannabis use outcomes, and general use of both drugs.8-11 Yet, this link is almost exclusively based on correlational findings that use retrospective reports of direct interpersonal experiences with discrimination. Correlational methods limit the conclusions that can be made about causality, and the focus on direct interpersonal experiences with discrimination likely underestimates the negative impact of racism on substance use among African Americans. Specifically, vicarious discrimination experiences (e.g., witnessing or hearing about someone else’s experiences with racism) are more common than direct discrimination experiences, and vicarious discrimination has been shown to intensify stress and prompt repetitive thoughts about these experiences.12-14 Unfortunately, the link between vicarious discrimination and alcohol and cannabis use is not well established. To advance science on the deleterious effects of racism and discrimination on alcohol and cannabis use and co-use among African Americans, there is a need to delineate the causal effects of both direct and vicarious discrimination, and their mechanisms (e.g., stress, rumination, and coping motives) and moderators (e.g., racial private regard) on drinking, cannabis use, and their co-use. The primary objective of the proposed research is to examine effects of direct and vicarious racial discrimination on alcohol and cannabis use and co-use. We will use an innovative experimental procedure employing virtual reality (VR) to expose individuals to racial discrimination incidents, and to establish a causal relation between experiences with discrimination and alcohol and cannabis use. The research is also designed to identify indirect pathways by which direct and vicarious racial discrimination can lead to increased alcohol and cannabis use, by measuring in real time individuals’ appraised stress, coping motives, and cravings for these substances. We will also examine individuals’ repetitive thoughts about the discrimination experiences, together with alcohol and cannabis cravings following the experimental procedure. In addition, racial private regard will be evaluated as a protective factor against the negative effects of discrimination on appraised stress, and subsequently alcohol and cannabis use outcomes. By evaluating these mediators and moderators, it is our goal to identify potential targets for interventions to reduce the harmful effects of direct and vicarious discrimination on drug use. African American male and female, college student and non-college community adults aged 18-25 at risk for alcohol or cannabis use, or both (N = 456) will be recruited for a between-group experimental study. Individuals will be randomly assigned to either receive direct or vicarious discrimination, or to the control condition. Experimental stimuli have been developed building on results from prior studies and have been used in our pilot research.15-18 Appraised stress and motives for using alcohol and/or cannabis to relieve stress will be assessed immediately before and after the VR simulations. Rumination over the discrimination experiences, alcohol and cannabis cravings, and actual use of alcohol or cannabis or both (referred to below as “alcohol and cannabis (co-)use”), will be measured within 24 hours and 48 hours post experimentation. Our specific aims and hypotheses are:
  (a) Aim 1: Determine effects of direct and vicarious racial discrimination on alcohol and cannabis (co-)use. Participants in both direct and vicarious discrimination conditions will be more likely to report alcohol consumption, cannabis use, or their co-use, relative to participants in the control condition.
  (b) Aim 2: Identify 2 pathways linking discrimination experiences to alcohol and cannabis (co-)use via acute stress or anger rumination, and subsequently coping motives. Discrimination will elicit stress and repetitive thoughts about the experiences, and motivations to use in order to cope, and in turn lead to greater odds of alcohol and cannabis (co-)use.
  (c) Aim 3: Delineate the protective role of racial private regard on the effects of direct and vicarious discrimination on acute stress. Racial private regard will buffer effects of discrimination on stress. This application aligns closely with NIDA’s Racial Equity Initiative and funding priority on polysubstance use, and NIH’s UNITE Initiative. By addressing these aims, we will have added to the scientific literature by testing causal pathways by which direct and vicarious discrimination may prompt alcohol and cannabis (co-)use, and examining the degree to which racial private regard may mitigate the risks for alcohol and cannabis use in African Americans at-risk for AUD and/or CUD.
   
• August 1, 2021 – July 31, 2026 (Funded, Award ID 2115393) Walkington, C. (Principal), Stringer, E. (Co-Principal), Petrosino, A. (Co-Principal), Ringstaff, C. (Co-Principal), Dhingra, K. (Co-Principal), “Seeing the World thought a Mathematical Lens: A Place-Based Mobile App for Creating Math Walks”, Sponsored by NSF, National Science Foundation, NSF 20-607 Advancing Informal STEM Learning, 47.076 Education and Human Resources, $1,270,132
  
  
• August 2020 – July 2024 (Funded, Award ID R305A200401) Walkington, C. (Principal), Stringer, E. (Co-Principal), Nathan, M. (Co-Principal), “Exploring Collaborative Embodiment for Learning (EXCEL): Understanding Geometry through Multiple Modalities” Sponsored by U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), $1,398,245
  
  
• June 1, 2019 - December 31, 2019 (Funded) Walkington, C. A. (Principal), Storz-Stringer, E. (Co-Principal), "Creating a Prototype Augmented Reality Simulation for Learning High School Geometry," Sponsored by Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½, Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½, $7,000
  
  
• August 31, 2016 (Funded) "Just-in-Time Teaching Grant," Sponsored by Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½, Ë®¶à¶àµ¼º½, $1,000