How far can human behavior be predicted with psychology and advanced technology?Innovative research that goes beyond the framework of social science research is now underway at Teikyo College. It is a project with the theme of "predicting social behavior from biological reactions that occur according to the state of the outside world."It is an attempt to deepen human understanding by observing how the mind, body, and behavior change when a person meets a person who belongs to a different group.

　Professor Tomoko Oe of the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Letters, Teikyo University, who invented the project, says.

　"In social psychology, the behavior of" attack "and" assistance "is a very important research subject. However, it is difficult to deal with situations where attacks and assistance are actually needed, so understanding in a situation close to reality is possible. It's not very advanced. With VR (Virtual Reality), it is possible to create situations that are difficult in general experiments. For example, a situation where you meet a person who is hit by a car or a person who is in a hurry to drop something. It will be possible to create a VR space and experiment with the reactions of people who encounter it. "

　This research is co-researched by Professor Junichi Kotoku of the Graduate School of Medical Technology of the same university who studies technologies such as VR in the medical field, and Associate Professor Mitsuhiro Ogawa of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the same university who studies biomedical engineering. Participate as.Not only using VR as an experimental environment, but also making the best use of each specialty, research on unprecedented ideas will proceed.

　Professor Kotoku, who is in charge of building a VR environment and programming the movement of avatars, and Takeshi Takada, a third-year doctoral student at the Graduate School of Medical Technology (Kotoku Laboratory), talked about the merits of VR.

　"With VR, we can provide an environment that cannot be reproduced by humans in exactly the same environment each time, so the accuracy of the experiment will improve dramatically. In addition, the actions and reactions taken by the experimenter will be expressed in a three-dimensional space plus time. It can be recorded in a total of four-dimensional space. Since it is possible to perform multifaceted and quantitative behavioral evaluation, we expect to obtain findings that could not be obtained by conventional psychology. "

　Associate Professor Ogawa, who specializes in measuring non-invasive biological reactions that do not hurt the body, also says.

　"In this experiment, we made it possible to observe biological reactions to minor psychological stimuli that occur on a daily basis. We measured fluctuations in pulse waves, skin surface temperature, and deep body temperature in the center of the body. We aim to capture the signs of psychological stimulation in detail from the temperature difference. "

　How did you come up with a project that had a different idea and accuracy from conventional psychological experiments?Professor Oe looked back.

　"At first, I was thinking about research with distant researchers. At that point, a symposium was held to support advanced research and a place where faculty members from different fields in Teikyo University could collaborate with each other. I was able to get to know two people who have a high track record in VR-related research at the university. "

　In the wake of the exchange from here, the three people hit on the value of research.It is said that an advanced research project that goes beyond this literacy has been realized.Toward a future where we can deepen our understanding of humans and read ahead of our hearts and actions.The synergies of expertise across disciplines have created another new “potential”.

https://www.teikyo-u.ac.jp/teikyolab