VR-Based Technologies: Improving Safety Training Effectiveness for a Heterogeneous Workforce from a Physiological Perspective

The enhancement of construction safety performance heavily relies on effective safety training. While virtual reality (VR) technologies have been utilized to improve construction safety training programs, the extent and mechanisms of improvement brought by VR remain unexplored. This study provided explanations on how the effectiveness of VR-based safety training for a heterogeneous workforce was achieved by investigating two mechanisms, namely embodied cognition and emotion arousal, from the physiological perspective. Randomized controlled experiments were conducted with three forms of safety training, namely paper-based training, VR-based learning, and VR-based experiencing, for both novice learners (NPs) and learners with prior knowledge (PPs). Digital eye-tracking and physiological devices and measurements were used to collect objective data. The results revealed better hazard recognition performance in both VR-based learning and VR-based experiencing groups than that in paper-based training groups. The results also revealed that VR-based learning was more effective for NPs than for PPs in acquiring safety knowledge, but VR-based experiencing was more effective for PPs than for NPs in stimulation of emotions. This means that the NPs benefit more from embodied cognition provided by the immersive environment of VR-based learning, and the PPs would be trained better with emotional arousal from the thrill of VR-based experiencing. The discovered mechanisms of embodied cognition and emotion arousal shed light on the underlying processes that contribute to the positive outcomes and promotion of VR-based training.