Research

“Virtual Reality technology can help shed new light on key aspects of professional judgment and expertise. We are just beginning to explore the possibilities.”

Experts’ reliance on intuitive schemas and selective information allows for quick and efficient performance, yet the latter comes at a cost, for it can cause tunnel vision and restrict flexibility. Immersive virtual reality technology is used to gain a better understanding of both the cognitive and intuitive processes underlying professional judgment and expertise across a variety of fields (medical, legal, forensic, management etc.)

Thanks to generous research funding from the Leverhulme Trust, HENCEL (Health Education North and Central London), and the Welcome Trust, we have successfully developed a “proof of concept” antibiotic prescription GP scenario exploring the factors that contribute to a decision to prescribe antibiotics in a situation of conflict with the patient.

In the long term one of our key objectives is to draw upon the resources of Virtual Reality technology to gain a better understanding of the impact of habituation on moral judgment (until now this has never been studied empirically). Our previous work on using virtual reality in moral judgement appeared on BBC Horizon ‘Are You Good or Evil?’*

_{* http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00k9drg
* http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vz3qr}