Can a Virtual Reality Training Scenario Elicit Similar Stress Response as a Realistic Scenario-Based Training Scenario?

• Published date: 01 March 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10986111231182729
• Author: M. Hunter Martaindale,William L. Sandel,Aaron Duron,Matthew J. McAllister
• Date: 01 March 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Police Quarterly

2024, Vol. 27(1) 109–129

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/10986111231182729

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Can a Virtual Reality Training

Scenario Elicit Similar Stress

Response as a Realistic

Scenario-Based Training

Scenario?

M. Hunter Martaindale

1

, William L. Sandel

2

,

Aaron Duron

1

, and Matthew J. McAllister

3

Abstract

One key feature for scenario-based training is introducing stressful, realistic scenarios

for trainees. Some law enforcement agencies have begun using virtual reality systems to

provide scenario training for their off‌icers. Therefore, the current study was con-

ducted to assess if a virtual reality training scenario can elicit a similar stress response as

a realistic scenario-based training scenario. The independent groups quasi-experiment

collected salivary markers of acute stress (α-amylase and secretory immunoglobulin A)

prior to, and immediately following, either an in-person scenario-based training ex-

ercise (n=31) or a virtual reality scenario (n=27) based on the in-person exercise.

Difference-in-difference and two-way ANOVA tests were performed. Overall, par-

ticipants exposed to the virtual reality scenario experienced a similar stress response to

the realistic in-person scenario-based training exercise. Implications for law en-

forcement agencies are discussed to hopefully move police training forward.

Keywords

virtual reality, scenario-based training, police training, stress

1

Texas State University –ALERRT Center, San Marcos, TX, USA

2

Missouri State University, Springf‌ield, MO, USA

3

Texas State University –MAP Lab, San Marcos, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

M. Hunter Martaindale, Texas State University –ALERRT Center, 601 University Drive, Encino Hall 324,

San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.

Email: Hunter.Martaindale@txstate.edu

Police off‌icers are often required to perform a wide variety of duties on any given shift.

These duties can range from mundane administrative tasks (writing parking tickets) to

low-level citizen contacts (wellness checks) to potentially contentious citizens contacts

(domestic violence calls for service) to the extreme (responding to a shooting). No

matter how many different types of calls for service exist, citizens expect the police to

know how to respond to the different situations that may occur (Hinds, 2009;Johnson,

2004;Percy, 1980). In an effort to ensure off‌icer competency, agencies provide their

off‌icers with a variety of training opportunities both in the initial training academy as

well as throughout their career. Many of these training opportunities include some

aspect of scenario-based training (SBT) to expose police off‌icers to simulated citizen

encounters (Buehler, 2021). One key aspect of SBT is allowing off‌icers the opportunity

to practice response options (e.g., decision-making) while under simulated stress as a

form of stress inoculation to improve performance and resiliency among police off‌icers

should they experience a similar incident while on the job (Greco & Fischetti, 2018;

Wiederhold, 2014).

Virtual reality (VR) technology has entered the police training market in recent

years. These training opportunities potentially allow law enforcement agencies the

ability to provide their off‌icers with a wide variety of training scenarios with a single

piece of technology. While there are some scholars working on skill retention utilizing

VR (Butt et al., 2018;Lohre et al., 2020), there appears to be a dearth of scholarship

seeking to understand if policing VR training environments can elicit similar stress

responses as in-person SBT scenarios. This paper seeks to address this gap in the

literature through an extensive quasi-experiment examining salivary markers of stress

in both a realistic SBT exercise and an identical exercise conducted in VR.

Literature Review

Scenario-Based Training

Policing is a complex a nd high-stres s career involvi ng diff‌icult choices in an ever-

changing environment. As such, training needs to prepare off‌icers for real-world

encounters beyond classroom learning. One method to achieve this involves the use

of SBT. SBT can take on many different forms depending on the training topic.

However, SBT generally places students in scenarios that mimic real-world en-

counters with role-players to expose trainees to situations similar to what they will

experience on the job (e.g., deescalating role players during crisis intervention

training). SBT has widely become a standard practice for law enforcement training in

the US, and it provides several benef‌its over classroom instruction alone. Scholars

and practitioners have discussed the benef‌its of such training (Bartel, 2021;Inter-

national Association of Chiefs of Police [IACP], 2012;Lynch, 2005). Nearly all

(99.7%) academies employ some form of SBT in conjunction with classroom learning

(Buehler, 2021). Additionally, SBT has been widely integrated into in-service

training as a means of further developing, honing, and maintaining complex job

110 Police Quarterly 27(1)