Using digital and immersive technologies to understand the contribution of sensory, perceptual, affective, cognitive and physiological factors to Social Information Processing

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Social skills and interactions form the bases of human consciousness and are a pillar of adaptive, daily functioning. They dictate much of human thought and activity and are measured by studying of how people encode, store, retrieve, process, and apply information garnered from social interactions. The foundation of social interactions is laid during the early years of development, with the period of adolescence constituting a particularly rich period as teenagers increasingly seek out relationships with their peers in the school environment and gain greater social independence. Despite the importance of this period, we do not yet understand exactly what factors contribute to high quality social functions. It is likely that a range of perceptual, mental, emotional, physical and biological aspects support these functions. Recent developments in technology now offer us the opportunity to measure these factors and determine how they combine during development to predict social competence. The proposed research program draws on the many advantages of techniques that allow individuals to immerse themselves into virtual social environments to improve our understanding of social functioning in children and adolescents. Four studies are planned that will precisely measure and identify social reasoning and decision making during realistic daily situations. The studies will use eye tracking (a measure of visual attention and eye gaze), psychophysiology (measures of biological arousal such as heart rate), virtual reality (a technique that presents three-dimensional environments in a laboratory setting), intelligent video games (interactive video games that have educational and learning purposes), and data mining (algorithms that allow us to automatically calculate the quality of a person's social reasoning) to draw a complete picture of human social information processing. Together, the proposed studies will contribute to fundamental knowledge of social skills in youth by using new and innovative ways of measuring social interactions and their emotional and physiological manifestations. Using multiple methods based on state-of-the-art technology has the potential to provide new biological markers of social competence in youth. As enthusiasm for the unique capabilities of immersive and interactive technologies grows worldwide, this is a critical time to contribute to our understanding of the fundamental bases of social functions.