Calibrating Stress As A Physiology-Driven Approach to VR Training

Future military operations training increasingly relies on virtual and mixed reality. Yet stress—a central determinant of performance and resilience—is often treated as an assumed by-product of scenario intensity rather than as an explicit design dimension. Drawing on the TrainOps and EviS projects, this short essay introduces the concept of stress-literate training and outlines a three-layer pipeline that connects (1) operationally grounded stress cues in XR scenarios, (2) robust biosignal acquisition (e.g., heart rate, EDA, eye tracking), and (3) interpretable stress metrics and instructor dashboards.