Chapter 4 76 Design We utilised a 2 (training simulator; within-subjects) × 2 (pain stimulus; between-subjects) mixed study design. Participants completed Virtual Reality training (VR) and training with the VirTra V-300 (VirTra) simulator on the same day. Due to the availability of training locations, all participants completed the training in the same order: VR training followed by VirTra training. Half of the participants completed the VR and VirTra training with the pain stimulus, the other half trained in both training simulators without a pain stimulus. The experiment was conducted over a span of 8 weeks as part of the annual training days for the police officers of the Stadtpolizei Zürich; thus, we were able to test and assess the training simulators as they are applied in practice. On each training day, training groups consisting of 8 police officers participated in the two training sessions. On each day of the experiment, the use of the pain stimulus alternated (i.e. on odd training days, participants trained in VR and VirTra with the pain stimulus; on even training days, participants trained in VR and VirTra without the pain stimulus). The objective of the training was 3-fold: (i) training of tactical procedures and movement, (ii) training of de-escalation techniques, and (iii) training of communication skills. The scenarios for the VR and VirTra training were developed and selected based on these training objectives. Due to the set-up of the training schedule of the Stadtpolizei Zürich, some participants were unable to complete all measures at the prescribed time points without causing a delay to the schedule. Thus, we proceed with our analysis with three distinct sub-samples: 83 participants completed the sense of presence measures for both simulators, 166 participants completed the measures of psychological responses for both simulators, and 87 participants took part in the measures of physical responses for both simulators. The VirTra V-300 training system has been used by the Stadtpolizei Zürich before this research; therefore, most of the participants had previous experience with the VirTra training. For all participants, this was their first time performing operational police training in VR. Experimental set-up The independent variables of the study were training simulator (VR, VirTra) and pain stimulus (with, without). The set-up and training scenarios for the training in VR and VirTra, as well as the use of the pain stimulus for both training simulators are described below.
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