Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has become a successful treatment to improve management of stress and anxiety in social situations. One of the most widespread social anxiety disorders is speech anxiety, and there are also studies reporting that speech anxiety is increasing among younger adults. An emerging trend in CBT treatment is virtual reality (VR), a technology that today also could involve the use of artificial intelligence. The aim of this position paper is to present and discuss the idea of using explainable artificial intelligence to improve CBT treatment of speech anxiety in virtual reality environments.
The proposed CBT and VR concept builds upon identification of individuals for whom a scientifically grounded treatment can be predicted to have a larger effect than the average. The identification of these individuals should be conducted with the use of Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). However, the effect of providing XAI-based information on actual treatment outcome has not been fully investigated and established. To better understand how AI-based information can strengthen CBT, it would be valuable to investigate how much confidence individuals undergoing treatment can have in information that is derived from XAI applications. If XAI-derived information is trusted to the same extent as traditional information coming from psychologists, this could open up for CBT design.
Furthermore, the VR-treatment should be grounded in learning theory and cognitive psychology with an emphasis on promotion of inhibitory learning. A commercial application should be used for stimuli presentation in the VR-head-set based on various scenarios that simulates real-world situations. The main objective of the VR-treatment is to promote inhibitory learning by disproving catastrophic beliefs through exposure to distressful speech situations. Outcomes of the treatment should primarily be measured by the Public Speaking Anxiety Scale, but also involve an assessment of social anxiety with the use of Liebowitz’s Social Anxiety Scale.