Abstract:

Objectives To examine the anticipation timing performance of law enforcement officers before and after four consecutive weeks of completing video simulations. Design A one group pre/post study design (n =15) was selected for this investigation. Methods 15 healthy police officers (13 men, 2 women)) from a Midwest law enforcement agency were selected for the study. The Bassin anticipation timer was used in this study. The object stimulus speed was set at 3.0 mph in accordance with prior studies. Participants were allowed a single practice trial on the anticipation timer and before given 3 trials pre and post. The anticipation timer was placed approximately two feet in front of the participant on a table with the target light marked and in view of the participant. The subject anticipated when the moving light would land on the indicated target and coincide with it a press of the push button. The data from the anticipation timer was measured in .001 seconds. The Virtra was selected as the intervention. It.involves a video simulator that uses virtual reality and certified curriculum to project a real-life scenario onto a 300° projector. Each participant performed a different video simulation two times per week for 4 consecutive weeks. A dependent t-test (SPSS ver. 26) determined a significant relationship (p = 0.035) between pre and post test scores after 4 weeks. Results The average between the three pretest scores were 0.056. The average improved from the pretest to the posttest. The average between the three posttest scores were 0.037 seconds. Conclusion Coincidence anticipation timing improved with police officers within 4 weeks when training with a VirTra video system twice a week. This may provide a new method for training for law enforcement officers.

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