As an Assistant Professor of Immersive Media Psychology and an Environment Initiative Fellow at the University of Oregon, I conduct mixed-methods research on the uses and effects of immersive media. Specifically, my work focuses on the prosocial and pro-environmental implications of immersive storytelling. I balance my research with active design and development, pairing my creative and academic brains to develop spatial computing applications that are then used in my research work (below).
Peer-Reviewed Journal Papers
Pimentel, D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (Under Review). Proximally Engaged: How Cognitive Absorption Influences Responses to Immersive Narratives of Environmental Threats. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Buljat, B., Pimentel, D., & Vasay, K. (Under Review). Emerging Technologies and Immersive Media for Sustainability Communication: Three Exploratory Case Studies. Environmental Communication.
Pimentel, D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2022). The Effects of Embodying Wildlife in Virtual Reality on Conservation Behaviors. Nature Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-957911/v1 [Recipient of Dissertation of the Year Award - ICA]
Pimentel, D. (2022). Saving Species in a Snap: On the Feasibility and Efficacy of Augmented Reality-based Wildlife Interactions for Biodiversity Conservation. Journal for Nature Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126151
Pimentel, D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2021). Virtual Climate Scientist: A VR Learning Experience About Paleoclimatology for Underrepresented Students. Interactive Learning Environments. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2021.1969582
Pimentel, D., Kalyanaraman, S., Lee, Y.-H., & Halan, S. (2021). Voices of the unsung: The role of social presence and interactivity in building empathy in 360 video. New Media & Society, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444821993124
Pimentel, D., Foxman, M., Davis, D. Z., & Markowitz, D. M. (2021). Virtually Real, But Not Quite There: Social and Economic Barriers to Meeting Virtual Reality’s True Potential for Mental Health. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.627059
Pimentel, D., Kalyanaraman, S., Fillingim, R. B., & Halan, S. (2021). The Effects of VR Use on Pain Experienced During a Tattoo Procedure: A Pilot Study. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2, 38. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.643938
Pimentel, D., & Vinkers, C. (2021). Copresence with Virtual Humans in Mixed Reality: The Impact of Contextual Responsiveness on Social Perceptions. Frontiers in Robotics and AI. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.634520
Pimentel, D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2020). Customizing Your Demons: Anxiety Reduction via Anthropomorphizing and Destroying an “Anxiety Avatar.” Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566682
The Penguin Conservation Snapchat Lens I developed for Snapchat was nominated for the Best Lens in the Social Environmental Good Category at the Lens Fest Awards (2021). The lens was subsequently used in the research paper published in the Journal of Nature Conservation (2022).
Receiving the Top Paper Award with Collaborator Dr. Donna Davis
Receiving the Dissertation of the Year Award (2023) at the International Communication Association Conference in Toronto, Canada (Environmental Communication Division)
Receiving the Brain-Computer Interface Award at the BOA Conference (Spain, 2017). The AR-based BCI prototype subsequently resulted in a book chapter on new BCI/AR interaction paradigms for storytelling with Guillermo Herrera (right).
Select Conference Proceedings
Raymon, B., Pimentel, D., & Vasay, K. (2023). Creating and Using XR for Environmental Communication: Three Exploratory Case Studies. 30th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2023 – Proceedings.
Davis, D. & Pimentel, D. (2022). Emerging technologies create new realities in strategic communication. In Proceedings of the 25th International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC). International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC). [Top Paper Award]
Pimentel, D. (2021). The Peril and Potential of XR-based Interactions with Wildlife. Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3450378
Pimentel, D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2020). Your Own Worst Enemy: Implications of the Customization, and Destruction, of Non-Player Characters. Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1145/3410404.3414269
Pimentel, D. (2019). Digital demons: Psychological effects of creating, and engaging with, virtual avatars representing undesirable aspects of the self. 26th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2019 - Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1109/VR.2019.8797907
Pimentel, D., Kalyanaraman, S., & Halan, S. (2018). Bigger is Better: A VR Penguin Rehabilitation Simulation to Study Animal Conservation Behaviors. 2018 IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference, GEM 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/GEM.2018.8516548
Pimentel, D., Kalyanaraman, S., & Halan, S. (2018). So cute it hurts!: The interplay between animal cuteness and message framing in environmental advertising. Proceedings of the Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, 73.
Book Chapters
Herrera-Arcos, G., & Pimentel, D. (2019). Mediated Interdependence in Motion: A Co-op Augmented Reality (AR) and Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) Installation (pp. 189–194). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24326-5_22
Zheng, L., Phelps, J. E., & Pimentel, D. (2019). Psychological transportation in narrative advertising. In Advertising Theory: Second Edition. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351208314
Select Conference Papers
Fauville, G., Pimentel, D. & Iserentat, G. (2023). Ocean XR: Assessing Immersive Technologies for Marine Education. National Marine Educators Association Conference.
Pimentel, D. & Kalyanaraman, S. (2023). Virtual Verdancy: Exploring Human-Nature Interactions in the Metaverse. 73rd Annual International Communication Association Conference.
Pimentel, D. & Kalyanaraman, S. (2022). One too Many?: Compassion Fade Effects of Non-Human Casualties in Virtual Reality. 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference.
Pimentel, D., Varry, S. & Maloney, D. (2022). The Use of Virtual Reality for Gaming, Escapism, and Social Connection During a Global Pandemic. 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference.
Kalyanaraman, S., Pimentel, D., Halan, S., Spiker, T., & Amaya, R. (2019). Decision-making under duress: Virtual reality as a methodological novelty in journalism education. World Journalism Education Conference.
Pimentel, D. (2019). Digital demons: Psychological effects of creating, and engaging with, virtual avatars representing undesirable aspects of the self. 26th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2019.
Pimentel, D., Amaya, R., Kalyanaraman, S., Halan, S., & Bailenson, J. N. (2019). Customizing climate change on your plate: A VR seafood buffet. 26th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2019.
Pimentel, D., & Cardentey, D. (2019). Simulating habitat experiences of living loggerheads. Seventh Annual Science by the Shore Symposium.
Pimentel, D., Kalyanaraman, S., Fillingim, R. B., & Halan, S. (2019). Virtual games and volitional pain: A new methodological approach for testing VR pain interventions on individuals receiving a tattoo. 26th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2019.