Chapter 1 12 and physical feedback of, virtual objects (Uhl et al., 2022). Particularly in threatening situations, the multi-sensory experiences of police officers are relevant for performance in stressful contexts. For instance, in training situations where an opponent is able to physically threaten the police officer (e.g., shooting at the officers with colored-soap cartridges), police officers experience representative responses akin to on-duty experiences (e.g., higher levels of anxiety, higher heart rates, faster reaction times). Training situations in which no physical threat and therefore no physical feedback in response to the officers’ actions was present, the officers’ responses were not representative of on-duty experiences (Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2010). Thus, in order for VR police training to be more representative, research and technology may explore how to advance the multisensory fidelity of current VR systems (Brunswik, 1956; Davids et al., 2013; Uhl et al., 2022). VR training has the clear advantage that it provides objective feedback of the training performance. Effective feedback has been shown to improve learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). With the after-action review tool, police instructors have the opportunity to provide objective and specific feedback tailored to the trainee. While research in reality-based (psychomotor task) training settings has explored how type and modality of feedback influence learning (Zhu et al., 2020), guidance on how to use simulation-based feedback tools has not yet been explored. Thus, the application of VR training may benefit from guidelines on how to use VR tools such as the AAR to increase the training and learning experiences of police officers. Taken together, mitigating the drawbacks of VR (e.g., multi-sensory fidelity) and maximizing the advantages (e.g., application of AAR) may provide technological advances and instructional guidance on the use of VR in police practice. Defining Virtual Reality In the context of this thesis, VR refers to systems that provides an immersive three-dimensional (3D) virtual environment in which users can move about freely. Within this thesis, two different VR training systems from different VR providers were utilized — a portable, partly radio, partly body-worn motion tracking system using sensor fusion provided by RE-liON (www.re-lion.com; see Figure 1.1) and a full-body (outside-in) optical tracking system provided by REFENSE (www. refense.com).
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