Psychological training of Rosgvardia cadets for basic handling of weapons using virtual reality methods

<p><strong>Context and relevance</strong>. Training cadets to work with combat weapons is part of firearms training and is conducted in many departmental educational organizations. The initial use of combat weapons at the firing range is a significant stressor for students, affecting their emotional well-being; failures in handling weapons can reduce cadets' motivation to acquire the specialty. Therefore, finding new methods to reduce cadets' stress during their first interaction with combat weapons is highly relevant. <strong>Hypothesis.</strong> Conducting weapons interaction training in virtual reality improves the emotional state of cadets and increases their confidence in firearms training. <strong>Methods and materials.</strong> Methods: emotional state questionnaire “Thermometer Scale” by T.N. Berezina, SAN Questionnaire, “Self-assessment of emotional states” technique (authors: A. Wessman and D. Ricks), expert assessment of confidence in handling weapons; methods of mathematical statistics (Mann-Whitney U criterion, Wilcoxon T criterion). <strong>Subjects</strong>: 100 people aged 18 to 22, cadets of the Russian National Guard. All subjects were divided into 3 groups. Experimental group: 31 cadets, underwent preliminary training in virtual reality, and then participated in real shooting ranges at the training ground. Control group 1: 39 cadets, did not undergo preliminary training, immediately participated in the shooting ranges. Control group 2: 30 people, did not undergo training, did not participate in the shooting ranges. The experimental group underwent training in interaction with weapons in virtual reality, 1—3 lessons of 40 minutes, the VR simulator PavlovVR was used. <strong>Results.</strong> Immediately after the first shooting ranges with combat weapons, the cadets' anxiety index increases and there is a general depression of the emotional sphere; the number of both positive and negative emotions decreases, and the mood decreases at the trend level. Preliminary training in virtual reality leads to an improvement in the “Activity” and “Mood” indicators, there is an increase in the number of positive emotions and a decrease in negative ones. According to the results of the expert assessment, during the shooting ranges, 90% of the cadets in the experimental group demonstrated confidence in handling weapons (in relation to 59% of the control group). <strong>Conclusions.</strong> Conducting virtual reality training for Russian National Guard cadets can be an effective way to train them in firearms.</p>