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Stress reactivity involves a physiological response to a stressful task, as a biological mechanism related to mental and physical health outcomes. Traditional stressors evoke social evaluative threat, which is fear of judgment and a threat to social status, typically via public speaking tasks. To be well-suited for virtual reality, however, a novel approach is necessary in the design of new stress tasks. We hypothesized that a virtual reality stress task involving social evaluative threat through a dance competition in front of an audience, elicits a stress response, measured by autonomic nervous system, cortisol, and testosterone reactivity. Participants (n = 18) showed autonomic nervous system reactivity in terms of increased heart rate and decreased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, indicating a stress response. Levels of cortisol increased in response to the dance competition, especially within responders, whereas testosterone levels did not change significantly over time. A virtual reality dance competition involving physical social evaluative threat elicits a stress response. 

According to the CDC, over three thousand people die every year from drowning in the United States. Many of these fatalities are preventable with properly trained lifeguards. Traditional lifeguard training relies on videos and mock rescues. While these methods are important, they have their shortcomings. Videos are static and do not build muscle memory. Mock rescues are labor-intensive and potentially put others in danger. Virtual reality (VR) can be used as an alternative training tool, building muscle memory in a fully controlled and safe environment. With full control over variables such as weather, population, and other distractions, lifeguards can be better equipped to respond to any situation. The single most important aspect of life guarding is finding the victim. This head rotation skill can be practiced and perfected in VR before guards ever get onto the stand. It also allows guards to practice in uncommon but nevertheless dangerous conditions such as fog and large crowds. VR also allows the user to get immediate feedback about performance and where they can improve. 

Police officers often must work alone in clearing operations, a procedure that involves surveying a building for threats and appropriately responding. A partnership between drone swarms and officers has potential to increase the safety of officers and civilians during these high-stress operations and reduce the risk of harm from hostile persons. This two part study examines aspects of trust, situational awareness, mental demand, performance, and human-robot interaction during law enforcement building clearing operations using either a single drone or a drone swarm. Results indicate that single drone use can increase time for operation, but accuracy and safety of clearing is enhanced. Single drone use saw increased situational awareness, a decrease in number of targets missed, and a moderate level of trust. For drone swarms, results indicate significant differences in mental workload from swarm data feeds compared to single drone feeds but no substantial difference in accuracy of finding targets.