Learning in Affectively Intense Virtual Environments - LITE

7
capillary refill rate.) The current prototype does provide a fairly detailed simulation with
regard to virtual casualty depiction but user comments and feedback indicate that multisensory
perceptual cues (visual, auditory and tactile) require improvements as they are
critical to patient-management simulations. Naturalistic handling and improved audio
were other aspects that users indicated could augment realism in the environment
Another example is the virtual reality simulation called the Firefighter Command
Training Virtual Environment developed at Georgia Tech in collaboration with the
Atlanta Fire Department using the Simple Virtual Environment (SVE) library, an
extensible framework for building VE applications (Julien & Shaw, 2003). The VE
allows the user to navigate around the environment, view the house from multiple angles
and allows for collaboration and team execution. The VE user is essentially built to train
a commanding officer trainee to direct a team of fire fighters to put out the fire with
minimum damage to the house in the simulation.
Although the research above illustrates various creative and important uses of
virtual reality as a tool for training first responders, important questions still remain
unanswered. Most of the systems have only gone through minimal evaluation, so it is still
not clear that these systems are significantly better than traditional forms of instruction.
Moreover, even though the Medisim system underwent a more thorough evaluation as a
whole, there was still no systematic variation of factors that may mediate the systems
effectiveness. The fact remains that it is logistically impractical to create a “real life”
learning scenario for emergency situations, so these are important questions to address. In
addition, the immersive environment would seem intuitively to be an ideal alternative
tool for modeling the affective intensity of these situations.
1.4. AFFECTIVE COMPUTING
In the last decade, and area within computer and information science has
emerged, which is related to the current study. This area is commonly referred to as
“affective computing”. Affective computing is computing that relates to, arises from, or
deliberately influences emotions (Picard, 1998). Recent research in psychology indicates
that emotions play an essential role in decision making, perception, and more (Norman,
2003). Not only too much, but too little emotion can impair decision making. Research in
the field of affective computing deals with the understanding of mechanisms of emotion