Gabriela Czarnek from our Centre together with Paweł Strojny, Agnieszka Strojny, and Michael Richter have just published a paper in International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction!
The goal of their study was to investigate the patterns of engagement among professional firefighters during a rescue operation challenge simulated in a virtual reality (VR). Researchers showed that measurement of objective engagement during task performance in VR application is possible andworth exploring in further research. In particular, they showed the importance of assessing both branches of autonomic nervous system, parasympathetic and sympathetic, to make inferences about engagement. This could be especially useful for future human-computer interfaces such as adaptive applications. Apart from that, they also stressed the importance of focusing on psychological fidelity of the professional simulators to foster training and performance.
