DOCSLIB.ORG

Firefighter Resilience Assessment Using a Structured Approach

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Firefighter Resilience Assessment Using a Structured Approach Firefighter Resilience Assessment Using a Structured Approach by Khyati Vyas A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Health Science in Health Informatics Faculty of Health Sciences Ontario Tech University Oshawa, Ontario, Canada December, 2019 © Khyati Vyas, 2019 THESIS EXAMINATION INFORMATION Submitted by: Khyati Vyas Master of Health Science in Health Informatics Thesis title: Firefighter Resilience Assessment Using a Structured Approach An oral defense of this thesis took place on December 13, 2019 in front of the following examining committee: Examining Committee: Chair of Examining Committee DR. PAUL YIELDER Research Supervisor DR. CAROLYN MCGREGOR AM Examining Committee Member DR. MICHAEL WILLIAMS-BELL Thesis Examiner DR. GRACE VINCENT The above committee determined that the thesis is acceptable in form and content and that a satisfactory knowledge of the field covered by the thesis was demonstrated by the candidate during an oral examination. A signed copy of the Certificate of Approval is available from the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. ii ABSTRACT This thesis proposes a resilience assessment model to assess the physiological changes experienced during a simulated firefighting environment. Currently, a resilience assessment model that measures the response to job stressors does not exist. The model provides a mechanism to measure the level of progress or decline experienced by public safety personnel, while exposed to job-related stressors. The research design for the model includes analysis of heart rate and electrocardiogram-based RR intervals at baseline and during the training activity. The model was applied to a case study that involved an extreme heat (50° C) search and rescue training task for pre-service firefighters (mean age of 21 years and a standard deviation of 4.6 years with 20% female). The performance of the female participants revealed a 54% higher standard deviation of normal R-R interval (SDNN) score compared to male participants. Furthermore, the average of the mean heart rate (HR) for males was 18% higher than the females. The SDNN for 93% (39) of males was less than 100ms as compared to the female SDNN where only 22% (2) of participants fell below 100 ms. Applying the model revealed female participants to be more resilient than their male counterparts. Prior studies have not addressed biological sex differences in their studies and this needs to be further explored. Implementation of the resilience assessment model to assess and improve the effectiveness of resilience training programs could benefit firefighters by reducing the incidence of PTSD, depression and workplace injuries. Keywords: occupational stress; firefighters; heart rate variability; public safety personnel; resilience iii CO-AUTHORSHIP STATEMENT The thesis includes a paper co-authored with research supervisor, Dr. Carolyn McGregor who contributed by providing feedback and supervision. The Use of Heart Rate for the Assessment of Firefighter Resilience: A Literature Review (Vyas & McGregor, 2018). iv AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis consists of original work of which I have authored. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize the University of Ontario Institute of Technology to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize University of Ontario Institute of Technology to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my thesis will be made electronically available to the public. The research work in this thesis that was performed in compliance with the regulations of Ontario Tech’s Research Ethics Board/Animal Care Committee under REB Certificate #14783 and Durham College Research Ethics Board under REB Certificate #156-1718. KHYATI VYAS v STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS 1 The work described in Chapter 4 was performed at the in climatic chambers of Ontario Tech University’s ACE Facility, Oshawa, using the Hexoskin smart wearable device for data acquisition in a pre-firefighting simulated environment supervised by Dr. Michael Williams-Bell and Dr. Carolyn McGregor. I was responsible for downloading and analyzing data in my computer. 2 Part of the work described in Chapter 2 has been published as: Vyas, K., McGregor, C., 2018, “The Use of Heart Rate for the Assessment of Firefighter Resilience: a Literature Review”, 2nd IEEE Life Sciences Conference, Montreal, Canada, 259-262, doi: 10.1109/LSC.2018.8572095 I performed the majority of the literature review, finding articles relevant to the context, and writing of the document. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Carolyn McGregor from the Faculty of Business and IT at Ontario Tech University. She provided me confidence and courage in pursuing my goals and guided me during this journey. She consistently allowed this paper to be my own work but steered me in the right direction whenever she thought I needed it. I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Williams-Bell who was involved in this research work. His prior research work to make firefighting a safer occupation has always inspired me to work harder and remain constantly driven to accomplishing this thesis work. I would also like to acknowledge all the members of our Health Informatics lab in SIRC. They provided motivation when the times I was trying to find solutions to my research questions. Catherine Inibhunu (Ph.D. © of Computer science) from FBIT at Ontario Tech University who provided advice on the constructive research and Meg Thavakugathasalin as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted to her very valuable comments on this thesis. Additionally, I would like to thank the Financial Aid Office of Ontario Tech University for providing financial support during a semester through the TD Bank Financial Group Graduate Scholarship. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my friends and everyone that provided me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................iii CO-AUTHORSHIP STATEMENT ............................................................................. iv AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ...................................................................................... v STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS ....................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ x LIST OF FIGURES...................................................................................................... xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ........................................................ xii Chapter 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1.1 Physiological Signal Monitoring ................................................................ 3 1.2 Mental Health in the Firefighter Population ............................................................ 4 1.1.2 Resilience Training .................................................................................... 7 1.1.3 Application of Resilience Assessment Techniques ..................................... 8 1.1.4 Research Motivations ............................................................................... 10 1.1.5 Structure of Resilience Assessment Model ............................................... 10 1.1.6 Research Methods .................................................................................... 11 1.1.7 Thesis Structure ....................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2. Literature Review................................................................................... 16 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 16 2.1.1 Method..................................................................................................... 16 2.2 Physical Demands of Firefighter Population ......................................................... 17 2.1.2 Cardiovascular Disease in the Firefighter Population ................................ 19 2.1.3 Prior work for Resilience in the Firefighter Population ............................. 21 2.1.4 Resilience in other Public Safety Personnel Population ............................ 24 2.1.5 Sample Size & Demographic Characteristics ............................................ 29 2.1.6 Heart Rate Responses ............................................................................... 30
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Physiological Self Regulation With
    PHYSIOLOGICAL SELF REGULATION WITH BIOFEEDBACK GAMES A Dissertation by AVINASH RAO PARNANDI Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna Committee Members, Tracy Hammond Dylan Shell Thomas Ferris Head of Department, Dilma Da Silva May 2017 Major Subject: Computer Engineering Copyright 2017 Avinash Parnandi ABSTRACT Mental stress is a global epidemic that can have serious health consequences including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Several techniques are available to teach stress self-regulation skills including therapy, meditation, deep breathing, and biofeedback. While effective, these methods suffer from high drop-outs due to the monotonic nature of the exercises and are generally practiced in quiet relaxed environment, which may not transfer to real-world scenarios. To address these issues, this dissertation presents a novel intervention for stress training using games and wearable sensors. The approach consists of monitoring the user’s physiological signals during gameplay, mapping them into estimates of stress levels, and adapting the game in a way that promotes states of low arousal. This approach offers two key advantages. First, it allows users to focus on the gameplay rather than on monitoring their physiological signals, which makes the training far more engaging. More importantly, it teaches users to self-regulate their stress response, while performing a task designed to increase arousal. Within this broad framework, this dissertation studies three specific problems. First, the dissertation evaluates three physiological signals (breathing rate, heart rate variability, and electrodermal activity) that span across the dimensions of degrees of selectivity in measuring arousal and voluntary control in their effectiveness in lowering arousal.
    [Show full text]
  • Examining Personality and Performance in Extreme Environments
    Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Examining Personality and Performance in Extreme Environments Du Preez, Thomas Award date: 2017 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 Prifysgol Bangor University Examining Personality and Performance in Extreme Environments Ph.D. Thesis Thomas L. du Preez January 2017 Thesis submitted to Bangor University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences. i Contents Acknowledgements 1 Declaration and Consent 3 Thesis Summary 6 Chapter 1: General Introduction 9 1.1. Military Training 12 1.2. Psychoticism 14 1.3. Psychopathy 15 1.4. Psychopathy and Courage 18 1.5. Courage within the Military 19 1.6. Characteristics of Courageous Soldiers 20 1.7. Characteristics Contributing to Successful Training Outcomes 22 1.8.
    [Show full text]
  • Evaluating the Effectiveness of Graduated Stress Exposure in Virtual Spaceflight Hazard Training
    Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Publications Engineering 12-1-2018 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Graduated Stress Exposure in Virtual Spaceflight Hazard Training Tor T. Finseth Iowa State University, [email protected] Nir Keren Iowa State University, [email protected] Michael C. Dorneich Iowa State University, [email protected] Warren D. Franke Iowa State University, [email protected] Clayton C. Anderson Iowa State University, [email protected] See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/imse_pubs Part of the Aeronautical Vehicles Commons, Cognition and Perception Commons, Ergonomics Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Kinesiology Commons, and the Systems Engineering Commons The complete bibliographic information for this item can be found at https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ imse_pubs/181. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Graduated Stress Exposure in Virtual Spaceflight Hazard Training Abstract Psychological and physiological stress experienced by astronauts can pose risks to mission success. In clinical settings, gradually increasing stressors help patients develop resilience. It is unclear whether graduated stress exposure can affect responses to acute stressors during spaceflight. This study evaluated psychophysiological responses to potentially catastrophic spaceflight operation, with and without graduated stress exposure, using a virtual reality environment.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    INDEX A Accommodation, visual, 67, 127, in single-task performance, Abbreviated injury scale (AIS), 1448, 1565 96–102 1600 Acculturation, 512 and spatial compatibility, 144–147 Ability tests, 478 ACGIH (American Conference of and stimulus-response Absolute threshold, 61, 62 Governmental Industrial compatibility, 97–98 Abstract information, 1211 Hygienists), 1542 and uncertainty, 143 Abstraction hierarchy analysis, Achievable performance, 1071–1072 Action slips, 736 1196–1198 Achievement and Success Index, Active electronic hearing protection ABWS (advance brake warning 483 devices, 651 system), 320 Achromatic colors, 74 Active errors, 1587 ACASs (automated collision Acoustics, see Sound Active failures, 1089 avoidance systems), 1673 Acoustical calibrators, 646, 647 Active noise reduction (ANR), 653, ACC (adaptive cruise control), Acoustic trauma, 655 668 1616–1617, 1624–1625 Acquired needs, McClelland’s Active surveillance, 854 ACCERS (Aviation Casual theory of, 405–406 Active touch, 81 Contributors for Event Action-based detection of errors, Active training, 1464 Reporting Systems), 789 751 Activities, tasks vs., 285 Accessibility: Action goals, 99–100 Activity network models, 964–965 of AmI environments, 1361 Action implementation automation, and OP diagrams, 965–968 and interactivity, 1382–1384 1623 and task analysis, 964–965 reactive vs. proactive strategies Action kansei, 584 Activity theoretical analysis, for, 1485–1487 Action levers, for quality of working 1245–1247 regulations and guidelines, life, 539 Activity theory, 579 1415–1416
    [Show full text]
  • Determination of Effective Training Methods to Learn a Laparoscopic Camera Navigation Task Under Stressful Environments
    Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2012 DETERMINATION OF EFFECTIVE TRAINING METHODS TO LEARN A LAPAROSCOPIC CAMERA NAVIGATION TASK UNDER STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENTS Devnath Vasudevan Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/2676 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Devnath Vasudevan 2012 All Rights Reserved Determination of Effective Training methods to learn a Laparoscopic Camera Navigation Tasks under Stressful Environments A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. By Devnath Vasudevan Department of Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University Director: Dianne Pawluk, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia, USA May, 2012 Acknowledgement I want to thank my mentor and adviser, Dr. Dianne T.V. Pawluk for providing financial and academic help, without which I would not have been here. I would like to thank Dr.Peter Pidcoe who guided me at various stages of my work and who shaped my thought process. Thank you so very much for your patience and guidance all through my research. I would also like to thank Dr. Jessica McKinney-Ketchum who helped in design and statistical analysis of my work.
    [Show full text]
  • Contribution to a Design Methodology for Crisis and Emergency Training on Hazardous Industrial Sites Pierrick Duhamel
    Contribution to a design methodology for crisis and emergency training on hazardous industrial sites Pierrick Duhamel To cite this version: Pierrick Duhamel. Contribution to a design methodology for crisis and emergency training on haz- ardous industrial sites. Risques. UMONS, 2020. English. tel-02443485 HAL Id: tel-02443485 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02443485 Submitted on 17 Jan 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License Université de Mons Faculté Polytechnique CONTRIBUTION TO A DESIGN METHODOLOGY FOR CRISIS AND EMERGENCY TRAINING ON HAZARDOUS INDUSTRIAL SITES Pierrick DUHAMEL Thèse défendue le 16 Janvier 2020 pour l’obtention du diplôme de docteur en Science de l’ingénieur et technologies Jury Pr. Sylvain BROHEZ, UMONS (FPMs), Supervisor, Pr. Christian DELVOSALLE, UMONS (FPMs), Co-supervisor, Pr. Agnès VAN DAELE, UMONS, (FPSE), President, Pr. Jérôme TIXIER, IMT Mines Alès Pr. Jacques LOBRY, UMONS (FPMs) Pr. Laurent PERRIN, A mes grands-parents, Summary As shown by annual industrial major accidents statistics in Europe, despites progress of risk prevention in hazardous companies, disaster still appears and these organizations cannot overlook the need to organize to manage such situation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Psychological Impact of Taser Utilization in Police Officers
    Walden University ScholarWorks Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection 2017 The syP chological Impact of Taser Utilization in Police Officers Yolanda Waters Walden University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations Part of the Criminology Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, and the Psychology Commons This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection at ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Walden University College of Social and Behavioral Sciences This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by Yolanda Waters has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the review committee have been made. Review Committee Dr. James Herndon, Committee Chairperson, Psychology Faculty Dr. Barbara DeVelasco, Committee Member, Psychology Faculty Dr. Brent Robbins, University Reviewer, Psychology Faculty Chief Academic Officer Eric Riedel, Ph.D. Walden University 2017 Abstract The Psychological Impact of Taser Utilization in Police Officers by Yolanda N. Waters MA, Argosy University, 2011 BS, Kaplan University, 2008 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Forensic Psychology Walden
    [Show full text]
  • Canadian Cavalry on the Western Front, 1914-1918
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-9-2013 12:00 AM "Smile and Carry On:" Canadian Cavalry on the Western Front, 1914-1918 Stephanie E. Potter The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. B. Millman The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Stephanie E. Potter 2013 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Potter, Stephanie E., ""Smile and Carry On:" Canadian Cavalry on the Western Front, 1914-1918" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1226. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1226 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “SMILE AND CARRY ON:” CANADIAN CAVALRY ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914-1918 by Stephanie Elizabeth Potter Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada Stephanie Elizabeth Potter 2013 Abstract Although the First World War has been characterized as a formative event in Canadian History, little attention has been paid to a neglected and often forgotten arm of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Cavalry. The vast majority of Great War historians have ignored the presence of mounted troops on the Western Front, or have written off the entire cavalry arm with a single word – ‘obsolete.’ However, the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and the Canadian Light Horse remained on the Western Front throughout the Great War because cavalry still had a role to play in modern warfare.
    [Show full text]
  • PERFORMANCE UNDER STRESS Human Factors in Defence
    PERFORMANCE UNDER STRESS Human Factors in Defence Series Editors: Dr Don Harris, Cranfield University, UK Professor Neville Stanton, Brunel University, UK Professor Eduardo Salas, University of Central Florida, USA Human factors is key to enabling today’s armed forces to implement their vision to ‘produce battle-winning people and equipment that are fit for the challenge of today, ready for the tasks of tomorrow and capable of building for the future’ (source: UK MoD). Modern armed forces fulfil a wider variety of roles than ever before. In addition to defending sovereign territory and prosecuting armed conflicts, military personnel are engaged in homeland defence and in undertaking peacekeeping operations and delivering humanitarian aid right across the world. This requires top class personnel, trained to the highest standards in the use of first class equipment. The military has long recognised that good human factors is essential if these aims are to be achieved. The defence sector is far and away the largest employer of human factors personnel across the globe and is the largest funder of basic and applied research. Much of this research is applicable to a wide audience, not just the military; this series aims to give readers access to some of this high quality work. Ashgate’s Human Factors in Defence series comprises of specially commissioned books from internationally recognised experts in the field. They provide in-depth, authoritative accounts of key human factors issues being addressed by the defence industry across the world. Performance Under Stress Edited by PETER A. HANCOCK and JAMES L. SZALMA University of Central Florida, USA © Peter A.
    [Show full text]
  • Stress Exposure Training
    8 Stress Exposure Training James E. Driskell and Joan H. Johnston Imagine that you are assigned a task to sit at your desk and mentally add a series of numbers. Now, imagine that you invite several people into your office, turn a radio and television on, and have someone flick the light switch on and off. For good measure, let’s let through all those calls from telephone salespeople asking you to switch your phone service. Further- more, let’s add some consequences to the task If your calculations are incorrect, you must pay a penalty of $1 for each number that you are off. It is difficult enough to perform even a moderately complex task in a nor- mal or benign performance environment, as the literature on training and skill acquisition attests. However, it would be far more difficult to perform a task effectively under the high-stress or high-demand conditions of this imaginary scenario. The military offers numerous real-world examples of complex and de- manding task environments. Today’s ships, airplanes, and tanks are tech- nologically advanced systems that greatly extend the range of human ca- pabilities. For example, military anti-air warfare systems aboard modern naval ships allow military personnel to detect aircraft at great distances. On the other hand, these systems also increase the demands on the op- erator: The amount and complexity of information that must be processed in a short period of time once a target has been detected is enormous. Therefore, although modern military systems have greatly extended the military’s capabilities, they have both increased the stress under which personnel must perform and increased the potential for catastrophic er- rors.
    [Show full text]
  • The Air Defence Task: Understanding What Motivates Automation Usage to Support Classification Decisions in Practice
    The Air Defence Task: Understanding what motivates automation usage to support classification decisions in practice Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Chlo¨eBarrett-Pink June 2018 2 Abstract With the growing use of automated systems in military environments it remains vital that research continues to explore the use of such systems operationally. The recent literature has tended to take a systems focused approach, which has concentrated on features of the system and what impact alterations have upon task performance. How- ever, research has begun to see the value in taking a human-centred perspective to understanding the use of automated systems in military environments; asking research questions that remain focused on the human operators that are required to utilise auto- mated systems in increasingly complex environments. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the literature on human-machine-interaction through exploring the operational use of automated systems in the maritime environment. Research into sociotechnical sys- tems is complex, therefore this thesis adopted a Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) approach utilising mixed-methods to elicit understanding and knowledge from unique access to Royal Navy (RN) Subject Matter Experts (SME). Privileged access to a large number of RN experts (N =53) enabled novel and interesting findings to be drawn from two qualitative surveys. The first explored the stages of the air defence task conducted by RN personnel to better understand where uptake of automation may be beneficial. The findings of this questionnaire revealed that the high-level stages of the air defence task (Observe, Identify and Classify, and Decide and Act) have remained unchanged over the last 20 years and the areas that have previously been identified as potentially benefiting from automated system support remain the same.
    [Show full text]
  • Breathing Biofeedback for Police Officers in a Stressful
    fpsyg-12-586553 March 8, 2021 Time: 17:7 # 1 PERSPECTIVE published: 12 March 2021 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.586553 Breathing Biofeedback for Police Officers in a Stressful Virtual Environment: Challenges and Opportunities Jan C. Brammer1*, Jacobien M. van Peer1†, Abele Michela1†, Marieke M. J. W. van Rooij1, Robert Oostenveld2,3, Floris Klumpers1,2, Wendy Dorrestijn4,5, Isabela Granic1 and Karin Roelofs1,2 1 Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 2 Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 3 NatMEG, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, 4 Police Academy of the Netherlands, Apeldoorn, Netherlands, 5 Faculty of Law, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands Edited by: Rachel Kowert, Take This, Seattle, United States As part of the Dutch national science program “Professional Games for Professional Reviewed by: Skills” we developed a stress-exposure biofeedback training in virtual reality (VR) for the Christoph Rockstroh, University of Freiburg, Germany Dutch police. We aim to reduce the acute negative impact of stress on performance, Avinash Parnandi, as well as long-term consequences for mental health by facilitating physiological stress New York University, United States regulation during a demanding decision task. Conventional biofeedback applications *Correspondence: mainly train physiological regulation at rest. This might limit the transfer of the regulation Jan C. Brammer [email protected] skills to stressful situations. In contrast, we provide the user with the opportunity to †These authors have contributed practice breathing regulation while they carry out a complex task in VR. This setting equally to this work poses challenges from a technical – (real-time processing of noisy biosignals) as well as Specialty section: from a user-experience perspective (multi-tasking).
    [Show full text]