{"ID":2869947,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14132","arxiv_id":"2509.14132","title":"When Avatars Have Personality: Effects on Engagement and Communication in Immersive Medical Training","abstract":"While virtual reality (VR) excels at simulating physical environments, its effectiveness for training complex interpersonal skills is limited by a lack of psychologically plausible virtual humans. This gap is particularly critical in medical education, where communication is a core clinical competency. This paper introduces a framework that integrates large language models (LLMs) into immersive VR to create medically coherent virtual patients with distinct, consistent personalities, based on a modular architecture that decouples personality from clinical data. We evaluated the system in a mixed-methods, within-subjects study with licensed physicians conducting simulated consultations. Results suggest that the approach is feasible and perceived as a rewarding and effective training enhancement. Our analysis highlights key design principles, including a \"realism-verbosity paradox\" and the importance of challenges being perceived as clinically authentic to support learning.","short_abstract":"While virtual reality (VR) excels at simulating physical environments, its effectiveness for training complex interpersonal skills is limited by a lack of psychologically plausible virtual humans. This gap is particularly critical in medical education, where communication is a core clinical competency. This paper intro...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14132","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.14132v2","authors":"[\"Julia S. Dollis\",\"Iago A. Brito\",\"Fernanda B. Färber\",\"Pedro S. F. B. Ribeiro\",\"Gustavo H. W. Barbosa\",\"Andressa A. Bastos\",\"Rafael T. Sousa\",\"Arlindo R. Galvão Filho\"]","published":"2025-09-17T16:13:37Z","proceeding":"cs.HC","tasks":"[\"cs.HC\",\"cs.CL\"]","methods":"[\"Large Language Model\",\"Language Model\"]","has_code":false}