Epilogue 6 115 Chapter 4 showed that the addition of a pain stimulus to VR training did not influence the training responses and sense of presence of police officers. Thus, while the addition of a pain stimulus to real-life training appears to elicit additional stress responses (Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2010), adding a pain stimulus to VR training did not influence the perception of stress and sense of presence in VR. Specifically, VR training appears to elicit sufficiently high levels of perceived stress and mental effort without adding a pain stimulus to the virtual environment. Thus, in line with findings in Chapter 3, VR training appears to be cognitively demanding to the point that adding additional features such as a pain stimulus may not further influence the experience in VR. Trainees need to have sufficient cognitive capacity available for learning to take place. If all capacity of the trainees is absorbed by navigating the VR environment, then learning policespecific skills is confined. Hence, considering cognitive load — and thus the recommendations of cognitive load theory (CLT; Mugford et al., 2013) — is particularly important for VR training. CLT distinguishes between extraneous load (i.e., cognitive load imposed by factors unrelated to the learning task), intrinsic load (i.e., inherent complexity of the learning material), and germane load (i.e., information directly relevant to the learning task), with the aim to minimize extraneous load and maximize germane load (Van Merrienboer & Sweller, 2005; Sweller, 2011). To minimize extraneous load during VR training, particularly for trainees with little previous VR experience, sufficient time for familiarization with movements and interactions with the virtual environment is necessary. Providing trainees with sufficient time to explore how to utilize the VR hardware and move within the virtual environment before executing training scenarios reduces the focus on how to utilize the features of VR to execute tasks. After the initial familiarization, trainees can focus on the scenario and the task at hand rather than being concerned with navigating the virtual environment. Next to minimizing extraneous load in VR, instructors may also design VR training to maximize germane load (i.e., the amount of mental effort required to process information in working memory during a learning task) (Mugford et al., 2013). For example, in VR, instructors can develop variable and diverse training contexts to allow trainees to apply their skills across different contexts. The application of skills in diverse contexts to enhance learning — also known as variability effect — is particularly applicable to VR, since VR provides freedom and flexibility in scenario creation and execution (Paas & Van Merriënboer, 1994; Giessing, 2021). Additionally, instructors can maximize germane load in VR training by priming trainees to learning-relevant attentional foci; for instance, by manipulating the virtual environment in relation to the training objective and level of experience of the trainees. When training with novices, the instructor could ensure that the environment is very clean (e.g., tidy rooms, few bystanders or distracting objects) initially. In subsequent trials, the instructor could systematically manipulate the amount of nonrelevant stimuli to include more complexity (e.g., messy rooms, more complex buildings, blind spots, etc.), making it increasingly difficult for the trainee to spot suspicious behavior.
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