Hello.
This is 6 Minute
English from BBC Learning
English.
I'm Rob.
And I'm Sam.
Here at 6
Minute English, we love
to chat about new
technology.
One of our
favourite topics is VR
or virtual reality, and
the ways it's shaping
life in the future.
VR allows you to put
on a headset and escape
into a completely
different world.
In this
programme, we'll be
hearing about some of
the ways VR is tackling
serious problems like
domestic violence, and
helping people overcome
phobias - the strong
and irrational fear of
something.
And, of course,
we'll be learning some
useful related vocabulary
along the way.
People who use VR often
describe the experience
as intense.
Putting on
the headset makes you
feel you're really
there, in whatever new
world you've chosen.
And it's this intensity
that inventors,
scientists and therapists
are using to help people
overcome their problems.
We'll hear more soon,
but first I have a
question for you, Sam.
One of the phobias VR
can help with is the
fear of heights - but
what is the proper
name for this
psychological disorder?
Is the fear of heights
called: a) alektorophobia?
b) arachnophobia?
or
c) acrophobia?
I'll say a) alektorophobia.
OK, Sam.
We'll find out
the answer at the
end of the programme.
Now, if like me, you're
not very good with
heights, you'll be
happy to know that
a company called Oxford
VR has designed a
system to help with
precisely that problem.
In the safety of your
own home, you put
on a headset and
are guided through
a series of tasks
moving you higher
and higher off
the ground.
You
start by taking an
elevator to the
top floor of tall
building and move
on harder challenges,
like climbing a rope.
Daniel Freeman is a
professor of clinical
psychology at Oxford
University.
Listen as
he explains how the
VR experience works to
BBC World Service
programme, People
Fixing the World.
Even though you're
consciously aware it's
a simulation, it
doesn't stop all your
habitual reactions to
heights happening, and
that's really important,
and that's why it's got
such a potential to be
therapeutic.
The art
of successful therapy,
and what you can do
really, really well
in VR, is enable
someone to drop
those defences, and
in VR a person is
more able to drop
them because they
know there's no
real height there.
Although the VR
experience seems
real, the person
using it knows it's
only a simulation -
a pretend copy of
the real thing.
This gives them
confidence to go
higher, knowing they
can't really get hurt.
But although it's
simulated, the
experience is real
enough to trick your
mind into acting
in its habitual way -
the way it usually,
typically works.
Although your brain
knows you have both
feet on the ground,
VR is so realistic
that to complete the
tasks you have to
drop your defences,
a phrase meaning to
relax and trust people
by lowering the
psychological barriers
you have built to
protect yourself.
Oxford VR's 'Fear of
Heights' experience
uses VR to put people
into another world,
but the next project
we'll hear about
takes things even
further - putting
people into someone
else's body.
In Barcelona, a VR
simulation is being
used in prisons to make
men convicted of
domestic violence aware
of what it feels like
to be in the position
of their victims.
The project, called
'virtual embodiment', is
led by neuroscientist,
Mavi Sanchez-Vives, of
Barcelona's Institute
for Biomedical Research.
In a virtual world we
can be someone different
and have a first-person
embodied perspective
from the point-of-view,
for example, of a
different person,
different gender,
different age.
One can
go through different
situations and have
the experience from
this totally
novel perspective.
Many of the prisoners
lack empathy for their
victims.
'Virtual
embodiment' works by
giving these men the
experience of abuse in
the first-person - from
the perspective of
someone who actually
experiences an event
in person.
In VR, the men have
the insults and abuse
they gave to others
turned back on them.
It's a novel - a new
and original - experience
for them, and not a
pleasant one either.
But the VR therapy
seems to be working,
and Dr Sanchez-Vives
reports more and
more of the prisoners
successfully
reintegrating into
their communities after
their release
from prison.
The experience VR
creates of seeing
things from someone
else's point-of-view can
be therapeutic, even
for serious problems.
And speaking of
problems, what was
the answer to your
question, Rob?
I asked Sam whether
the correct name
for the fear of
heights was
alektorophobia,
arachnophobia, or
acrophobia?
I guessed it
was alektorophobia.
Which was the wrong
answer.
Alektorophobia
is the fear of chickens!
The correct answer was
c) acrophobia - a fear
of heights, and a good
example of a phobia.
Let's recap the rest
of the vocabulary we've
learned, starting with
simulation - a pretend
copy of something that
looks real but is not.
Habitual describes the
usual, typical way
something works.
The phrase 'drop your
defences' means to
relax and trust
something by lowering
your psychological
barriers.
In the first-person means
talking about something
from the perspective
of the person who
actually experienced
an event themselves.
And finally, the
adjective novel means
completely new and
original, unlike anything
that has happened before.
Well, once again, our
six minutes are really -
and virtually - over!
Goodbye for now!
Bye!