Padgett, Rebecca M. (2019) Effects of VR-Induced Emotion States on Medical Information Processing and Decision-Making. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Medical practitioners work in emotion-rich professional contexts, where emotional labour is routine. This study aimed to experimentally examine the influence of emotion on medical information processing and decision-making, to enhance understanding of medical decisionmaking and medical error, which was the third leading cause of death in the US in 2016. This experiment induced high activation/negative valence and low activation/positive valence emotion states in a laboratory using Virtual Reality (VR) technology, before administration of medical decision-making tasks. Fifty-seven volunteer participants were randomly assigned to one of the emotion conditions. Galvanic Skin Response and subjective measures were used to measure emotion activation before, during, and after immersion. It was hypothesised that participants in a VR-induced high activation/negative valence emotion state would make a greater number of incorrect treatment decisions, and take more time to process information and form a decision, compared to participants in a VR-induced low activation/positive valence emotion state. This was based on the premise high activation/negative valence emotion state would impair information processing used for medical decision-making. The results do not support either of these hypotheses, however findings are inconclusive due to the low power of the sample and unsuccessful manipulation. Despite methodological limitations, this study has implications for the use of VR in research, medical practice, theoretical models of medical decision-making, and practitioner training. Future research is recommended to more precisely measure the relationship between practitioner emotion and medical information processing, decision-making, and error.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Michael Ireland |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Oct 2025 00:30 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Oct 2025 00:30 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | medical decision-making; doctor burnout; medical error; emotion; virtual reality; VR |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52644 |
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