The goal for a virtual reality (VR) training system is to enable trainees to acquire all the knowledge they need to perform effectively in a real environment. Such a system should provide an experience so authentic that no further real-world training is necessary, meaning that it is sufficient to train in VR. We evaluate the impact of a haptic thermal stimulus, which is of paramount importance to decision making, on trainees performance and knowledge acquisition. A thermal device was created to deliver the stimulus. As a proof of concept, a procedure from firefighter training is selected, in which sensing the temperature of a door with one's hand is essential. The sample consisted of 48 subjects divided among three experimental scenarios: one in which a virtual thermometer is used (visual stimulus), another in which the temperature is felt with the hand (thermal stimulus) and a third in which both methods are used (visual + thermal stimuli). For the performance evaluation, we measured the total time taken, the numbers of correctly executed procedures and identified neutral planes, the deviation from the target height, and the responses to a knowledge transfer questionnaire. Presence, cybersickness, and usability are measured to evaluate the impact of the haptic thermal stimulus. Considering the thermal stimulus condition as the baseline, we conclude that the significantly different results in the performance among the conditions indicate that the better performance in the visual-only condition is not representative of the real-life performance. Consequently, VR training applications need to deliver the correct stimuli for decision making.

中文翻译：

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在 VR 培训中为决策提供关键刺激：消防员培训场景的评估研究


虚拟现实 (VR) 培训系统的目标是使学员能够获得在真实环境中有效执行所需的所有知识。这样的系统应该提供一种真实的体验，无需进一步的现实世界培训，这意味着在 VR 中进行培训就足够了。我们评估触觉热刺激对学员表现和知识获取的影响，这对决策至关重要。创建了一个热装置来传递刺激。作为概念验证，选择了消防员培训的程序，其中用手感测门的温度至关重要。该样本由 48 名受试者组成，分为三种实验场景：一种使用虚拟温度计（视觉刺激），另一种用手感受温度（热刺激），第三种同时使用两种方法（视觉刺激）。 + 热刺激）。对于绩效评估，我们测量了所花费的总时间、正确执行程序和识别的中性平面的数量、与目标高度的偏差以及对知识转移调查问卷的答复。通过测量存在感、晕机症和可用性来评估触觉热刺激的影响。考虑到热刺激条件作为基线，我们得出的结论是，这些条件之间的性能结果存在显着差异，表明仅视觉条件下的更好性能并不能代表现实生活中的性能。因此，VR 培训应用程序需要为决策提供正确的刺激。