Assessing the perceptual equivalence of a firefighting training exercise across virtual and real environments

The advantages of Virtual Reality (VR) over traditional training, together with the development of VR technology, have contributed to an increase in the body of literature on training professionals with VR. However, there is a gap in the literature concerning the comparison of training in a Virtual Environment (VE) with the same training in a Real Environment (RE), which would contribute to a better understanding of the capabilities of VR in training. This paper presents a study with firefighters ( N = 12) where the effect of a firefighter training exercise in a VE was evaluated and compared to that of the same exercise in a RE. The effect of environments was evaluated using psychophysiological measures by evaluating the perception of stress and fatigue, transfer of knowledge, sense of presence, cybersickness, and the actual stress measured through participants’ Heart Rate Variability (HRV). The results showed a similar perception of stress and fatigue between the two environments; a positive, although not significant, effect of the VE on the transfer of knowledge; the display of moderately high presence values in the VE; the ability of the VE not to cause symptoms of cybersickness; and finally, obtaining signs of stress in participants’ HRV in the RE and, to a lesser extent, signs of stress in the VE. Although the effect of the VE was shown to be non-comparable to that of the RE, the authors consider the results encouraging and discuss some key factors that should be addressed in the future to improve the results of the training VE.