August 3, 2012 New Generation of Virtual Humans Helping to Train
Psychologists Virtual veterans in development for training U.S.
military personnel ORLANDO, Fla.—New technology has led to the
creation of virtual humans who can interact with therapists via
a computer screen and realistically mimic the symptoms of a
patient with clinical psychological disorders, according to new
research presented at the American Psychological Association’s
120th Annual Convention. “As this technology continues to
improve, it will have a significant impact on how clinical
training is conducted in psychology and medicine,” said
psychologist and virtual reality technology expert Albert “Skip”
Rizzo, PhD, who demonstrated recent advancements in virtual
reality for use in psychology. Virtual humans can now be highly
interactive, artificially intelligent and capable of carrying on
a conversation with real humans, according to Rizzo, a research
scientist at the University of Southern California Institute for
Creative Technologies. “T