Evaluating the Effects of Realistic Communication Disruptions in VR Training for Aerial Firefighting

Aerial firefighting takes place in stressful environments where decision making and communication are paramount, and skills need to be practiced and trained regularly. An experiment was performed to test the effects of disrupting the communications ability of the users on their stress levels in a noisy environment. The goal of this research is to investigate how realistic disruption of communication systems can be simulated in a virtual environment and to what extent they induce stress. We found that aerial firefighting experts maintained a better Heart Rate Variability (HRV) during disruptions than novices. Experts showed better ability to manage stress based on the change in HRV during the experiment. Our main finding is that communication disruptions in virtual reality (e.g., broken transmissions) significantly impacted the level of stress experienced by participants.