Chapter 3 64 leading to significantly higher peak levels of activity and maximum HRs. Additionally, first-time VR exposure can induce initial postural instability (da Silva Marinho et al., 2022), thus forcing further inhibition of fast or vigorous movement in VR that is not present in RL. Further, we found that average HRs did not differ between the two training modalities. In our study, police officers experienced similar average levels of cardiovascular responses to VR and RL SBT. This suggests that, in their current state of application, VR and RL are both capable of producing training situations that induce physiological responses to external stressors. However, compared to the literature reporting HR in police training (e.g., Armstrong et al., 2014; Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009), the average HRs elicited in our study were fairly low (on average 91 bpm in VR and 89 bpm in RL). This may be explained by the overall training objective of training officers in protecting a building and spotting suspicious behavior rather than placing them in physically demanding situations. This training objective led to training scenarios comprised of largely stationary tasks (i.e., officers positioning themselves to protect a building and look for threats, with occasional patrolling, and encountering attackers) which is also reflected in the low levels of activity during both RL and VR and recorded VMUs that are well below values that would indicate a continuous walking equivalent activity (OmniSense Analysis Help, 2016). Note that largely stationary tasks are not uncommon in police work (see Famega, 2005), which is why stationary task components were implemented in the scenarios of this study. Overall, the differences in physical responses to the training modalities seem to be dependent on the training objective and thus tasks within the training scenarios, as well as the inherent characteristics of VR systems and the safety requirements that trainees should adhere to when wearing the VR equipment. Therefore, when aiming to train scenarios that require high levels of physical activity (i.e., running), it appears most appropriate to train these tasks using RL SBT. Regarding psychological responses elicited by RL SBT and VR SBT, we found that police officers experienced similar levels of perceived stress during RL SBT and VR SBT. Akin to the average HRs found in our study, the recorded levels of perceived stress are relatively low compared to studies that looked at perceived anxiety or stress of police officers during low- and high-stress training conditions (e.g., Giessing et al., 2019; Oudejans, 2008; Wilson et al., 2007). Nonetheless, we found that police officers perceived VR SBT to be as stressful as RL SBT, closely aligning with existing literature showing that training in VR can elicit significantly elevated psychological and physiological stress responses (van Dammen et al., 2022). These findings suggest that while VR SBT may not be appropriate for training objectives that require high levels of physical activity, VR SBT is suited for the training of mentally demanding tasks that put additional strain on the officer by providing ecologically valid training environments.
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