Training Areas

Stress Inoculation Training

Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) is a type of training used to prepare individuals for stressful situations, diminishing the potential for a negative psychological reaction. In cognitive-behavioral therapy, SIT is accomplished through gradual, controlled, and repeated exposure to a stressor. The goal behind this exposure is to desensitize the person to the stressful situation, avoiding a panic or “fight or flight” response to the real thing. This not only allows the individual to accomplish the tasks at hand in a stressful environment, but also may act to prevent long-term psychological reactions to stress such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Donald Meichenbaum developed SIT in the late 1970s for use with multiple populations of individuals and has been proven successful in multiple controlled studies.  We focus on the following areas:

• Combat Medics
• Flight Medics
• Teen Driver Training
• Coast Guard
• Police SWAT Teams
• Stress Management Techniques

VR can provide the perfect platform by which to deliver the gradual, controlled stimuli necessary for SIT. VR studies examine the efficacy of this approach to train emergency response personnel and other populations that are required to perform in chaotic, stressful environments.

• Combat Medics

  IMI-E and partner organizations are working to enhance the training provided to medics, whether they are medics trained for peacekeeping operations, combat missions, or civilian medical care. VR can provide an inexpensive training tool allowing medics to experience situations outside of their everyday training. These types of highly immersive environments can test the medics’ knowledge of medicine, combat training skills, and ability to utilize previously learned skills effectively under the pressure of a life-or-death situation. VR can expose medics to scenarios that they are unable to experience in current real-world training environments. VR allows medics to learn from their mistakes and repeat scenarios until they confidently and successfully complete the task. Each individual can do remediation based on their individual skills and weaknesses, and can accomplish this at an individualized pace. This has the added benefit of providing a cost-effective training tool. 
  
  Since training learned in a VR world must successfully translate into improved performance on real-world tasks and skills, previous studies by IMI-E’s U.S. affiliates have shown that indeed a transfer of training does occur if VR training is conducted appropriately.
  

• Flight Medics

  In many recent studies, some of which have been carried out by IMI-E’s partner organizations The Virtual Reality Medical Center and the Interactive Media Institute, virtual reality simulation has proven effective in training flight medics to perform well in chaotic combat situations. By exposing flight medics to vivid and immersive combat simulations while simultaneously teaching them coping skills, researchers have been able to help medics perform more accurately on the battlefield. It is also thought that this training helps prevent these medics from having acute stress reactions and the long-term negative effects associated with these reactions.
  
  IMI-E would like to expand the scope of this technology, bringing it to other medical professionals who might benefit. By proving simulation technology’s usefulness and efficacy, IMI-E hopes to help create more skilled, resilient medical personnel, ultimately saving lives by allowing medical personnel to stay focused on saving the patient even in the face of very stressful surroundings.
  

• Teen Driver Training

  According to the World Health Organization, traffic accidents cause about 127,000 deaths and 2.4 million injuries a year in the European Region. One in every three road-traffic deaths involves people younger than 25 years of age. This is an important public health concern. IMI, IMI-E’s U.S. counterpart, participated in a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) funded study to train high school students using virtual reality driving simulators. Advantages of training in virtual reality before in vivo exposure include a relatively low cost compared to automobiles, realistic images that lead to immersion and safety for both the inexperienced student driver and fellow drivers while the teen learns to navigate the roads. Situations such as pedestrians quickly walking in front of the moving car, other cars coming into the driver’s pathway, etc., which cannot be safely practiced in the real-world setting are all possible in VR. This allows the novice driver to improve skill levels prior to setting out on the real highways. 
  
  IMI-E hopes to bring this type of driver training to Europe, making the roads safer for teenagers and adults alike.

• Coast Guard

  One of IMI-E’s partner companies, The Virtual Reality Medical Center (VRMC), has been funded several times by the U.S. government to examine the ability of virtual reality training simulators to teach tactical and trauma care skills, practice stress management techniques (e.g., combat breathing), and improve performance during real-life emergency situations.
  
  Though much of this work to date has been done using the military as the testing population, VRMC has expanded its research to other populations, like the Coast Guard. In a recent study, the United States Coast Guard’s Pacific Tactical Law Enforcement Detachment 103, led by Commander Ogle, USCG, participated in VR and real-world training. Twenty out of 100 members of the detachment received VR training with a virtual ship prior to completing training exercises in a real ship. A research assistant from the VRMC conducted VR training on a laptop computer, and Commander Ogle administered real-world training.
  
  Participants navigated the virtual ship to find enemies for approximately 15 minutes prior to real-world training. Performance in the VR exercises was carefully recorded, and subjective feedback was collected. After VR training, the VR group completed real-world training exercises, and their performance was observed via video cameras placed throughout the ship. Commander Ogle and a research assistant reviewed the videotape and critically evaluated participants’ performance. The VR group’s performance was then compared to the performance of the non-VR group.
  
  Commander Ogle commented that the VR-trained participants were more detailed in searching the ship’s compartments and that the detachment was more aware and efficient, and displayed better tactics and fundamentals after the VR training. He further commented that the personnel are able to develop good timing and a very real sense of being on the ship through VR. In post-training interviews, participants noted that they felt more vigilant and aware due to VR training.

• Police SWAT Teams

  Similar to medics and soldiers, law enforcement officers are in need of realistic exercises to enhance their training. With virtual reality and other simulation technologies, specialized police teams, like SWAT and rescuers, are able to safely experience situations that they may someday encounter while on duty. Simulations allow trainees to become immersed in dangerous or stressful situations to learn how to react and use their skills without the threat of dire consequences. They can experience the same situation repeatedly, learning coping skills and appropriate protocol safely and effectively.
  
  IMI-E works to enhance simulation applications in order to benefit not only law enforcement, but also all types of occupations in which on-the-job training is impractical or dangerous.

• Stress Management Techniques

  Virtual reality and other advanced technologies are increasingly being used as tools for stress management. The portability of high-tech gadgets enables people to carry treatment programs with them into potentially stressful situations. For example, soldiers are able to carry specially programmed PDAs into battle, enabling them to assess their stress levels while deployed, and obtain advice and reminders about how to manage their stress as they fulfill their duties. Civilians, too, are able to carry assessment and treatment programs on their cell phones or Palm Pilots to help them manage their stress. Whether a person encounters a stressful situation at work, or finds themselves facing a feared situation, they can turn to these programs for distraction, or more importantly, for help remembering their coping skills.
  
  As technology becomes less expensive and less portable, IMI-E would like to bring these calming programs to both specialized populations and the general public, easing the stress levels experienced in everyday life.