Most of us have probably come across the term “muscle memory”before. In short, it is a certain subconscious function of memory that allows us to perform these actions without thinking about the process of movement itself. Muscle memory is used, for example, while typing, driving, entering contacts, playing instruments, and many other activities that we perform on a daily basis. It also allows more experienced people to do their work more smoothly. Thanks to it, the processes of specific behavior, movements, and reactions can become more direct.automatic. How does all this compare to VR? How does VR training help new employees better prepare for their new job?
Muscle memory – learn more
This is a way for the muscles to store and reproduce information about a given movement. By learning, through deliberate repetition of these motor patterns, we can record specific movement patterns that we can then use automatically and autonomously without being aware of their execution. Thanks to muscle memory, we can reduce the response time of our body to these situations and the time to perform these actions to a minimum. Thanks to the full automation of these activities, our the mind directly shortens the path that specific information must travel before making specific decisions. This allows the learned answer to be immediate, but still remains correct and unchanged.
A good example of people using muscle memory can be, for example, athletes who, by training their skills daily, can easily transfer them to the field or court. Their seemingly superhuman accuracy, strength, and ability to respond to dynamic behavior are all made possible by their muscle memory.
The basketball player does not think about how to grab the ball and how to throw it so that it falls into the basket – he just throws it, and it falls. A soccer player doesn’t ask himself where, how, or with what force to kick the ball so that it hits a certain spot on the field – he just does it, and it hits the target. A tennis player does not think about how to position himself on the court to bounce another ball, he also does not think about how to do it – he just does it.
However, you don’t need to be a professional athlete to use muscle memory in your life. When writing this article, I do not think, for example, about the location of fingers on the keyboard. The only thing I know is what word he wants to write – and the fingers themselves (automatically) are placed on the keyboard accordingly.
By the way, you’ve probably already used muscle memory more than once in your life. Have you ever used a pad PIN? I’m sure that you didn’t remember the code itself before, but you still managed to enter it on the terminal, remembering the output layout itself-this is m.in credit to muscle memory. If you have a driver’s license, I also assume that you don’t wonder how to shift gears while driving – however, your hand automatically knows where it should be when you want to do it. In some strange way, it always knows where a given gear is located without having to look at the gearshift levers. 😉
What do we owe to VR training?
VR training allows you to simulate space and evaluate user gestures, movements, and behaviors during individual parts of the entire task preparation process. With this solution, companies can better prepare new employees to perform these actions. At the same time, they reduce the costs and time associated with slow implementation of an employee, and reduce the likelihood that such a person will make typical novice mistakes. Such mistakes can be particularly costly for the company itself and its image, and they can be avoided with VR.
VR training not only allows a new employee to better prepare for the job itself, but also gives them the opportunity to become familiar with their shared space even before they actually take up the position. An employer can find out how its future employee will work. he will find himself in the workplace. This is especially important, especially in places such as large warehouses where cars are moving – lack of skills to move around such a place can lead to tragedy. However, this is just one of many reasons why you should tame your employee in the workplace in advance. Another one is accidents related to improper performance of their duties. Folding of machinery, electronics, industrial goods, food products – any break from the assigned procedure can result in a lawsuit and large losses for the company. However, is it possible to demand from a person who first appeared at work, an impeccable knowledge of procedures?
VR training shows that you can. Virtual reality training contributes to better training of our employees. They also give the employer peace of mind and confidence that they really did everything possible to avoid the potentially unpleasant consequences associated with poor training of their employee.
How does VR training translate into practice?
Standard training often ends, as a rule, with theory, which, moreover, often does not take into account all the related elements in the target work. Just m.in for this reason, many industrial enterprises are constantly reshuffling workers. New employees don’t stay in the company for long because of conflicting expectations they had before starting a real job. Finally, they did not have the opportunity to perform it literally in training, so it is not surprising that their ideas might differ from those presented to them earlier. The employee leaves, and the company? I’m left with nothing. She has already spent time and money on attracting a new person, organized occupational health and safety training has reduced turnover due to the‘implementing’ employee and due to the removal of an experienced person assigned to train them. In addition, it must pay the employee’s salary for performing their work, which has done more harm than good. This is what is happening in most companies right now-and not necessarily.
Through VR training, we can introduce the user to a virtual space that reflects every room we have designed. It can be a playground, a beach, a production hall, a warehouse, or a space – this is meaningless for us. The fact is that it can be a space that reflects real rooms, or a complete abstraction. In fact, the decision depends only on our client. However, by being able to display an accurate workspace, we provide employees with a real-world experience of being present in a given location. We can accurately present them with their future position, without having to put the person in a real workplace. We can give him an idea of what his future responsibilities will look like and point out to him the expectations we will have for his work. This extremely important because even if he finds out that after learning VR, this job is still not for him, the hiring process can end much earlier than with standard training. Then there is no need to bring in more people, as well as the time, money, and effort to rework our team, in favor of a person who is ultimately not the given job of interest. However, if a person continues to grow in this field after learning VR, this is also great news for the employer. Then the employer realizes that this employee already knows what to do, how to do it, and what kind of work he writes for when signing the contract. In addition, through VR training, it can test how it will behave in the workspace. The VR app will not only allow the employee to explore the work itself and explore a new space, but it will also allow them to make mistakes and, most importantly, present them with their consequences. Thanks to this feature, we increase the chances of eliminating these errors in real work, while reducing the risk of associated costs .
Muscle memory gained in VR training.
Through constant repetition of diagrams, analysis of general reports, and exercises, employees become more productive. With VR training ‘newbie’moving to a new position, I feel more tame with it than with standard training. He knows the dangers, knows the patterns, doesn’t get distracted, and I do exactly what I do. in training. With a wide range of assessments in virtual reality training, employers can also see which employee is more suitable for a particular job. Thanks to extensive reports, they will be able to analyze all work patterns and find the most optimal business model, while increasing their production capabilities.
Employees undergoing training not only feel more confident in the job itself, but they can also quickly respond to critical situations by modeling them. VR training allows you to know the work environment with multiple senses, which also leads to a better reflection of real-world activity data. The mechanics, sounds, graphics, and animations implemented in the training provide a deeper experience for users, who remember their intensity better than traditional training sessions. Training, performing repetitive actions, knowing the consequences of your actions, knowing the procedures and standards of work, and deep immersion-all this leads to success in employee training.
Maciej Fiałkowski, EpicVR
