Background: New York University is home to the largest school of Dentistry in the country, and now uses virtual reality to train students on the notoriously fickle inferior alveolar nerve block, a common anesthetic injection. In previous research testing the efficacy of the VR training, students mentioned that the appearance of the virtual patient was eerie. Based on principles of Emotional Design and literature about the Uncanny Valley, students’ perception of the patient could have negative effects on their learning during this training.

Action: As my dissertation research, I collaborated with developers and 3D artists to create a new, more realistic and less eerie virtual patient, then designed and conducted an experiment to test the impact of the appearance of a virtual patient on students’ learning and emotional outcomes.

Result: The revised virtual patient is now used by over 400 students each year.