Changing Between Virtual Reality and Real-World Adversely Affects Memory Recall Accuracy

Abstract

Context-dependency effects on memory exist, whereby people’s context influences their ability to accurately recall items from memory. This effect was not previously studied when considering virtual reality as an environmental context. We show that adverse effects on recall of memorized items exist when changing between virtual and real environments. The effect was not present when memorizing and recall were both done in VR; it appears to be caused by the change of environmental context. This previously unknown effect may impact how we use VR for memorization tasks, particularly when accurate recall of memorized information in a real environment is important. In a memory-recall experiment (n = 51) participants that underwent a context change involving VR after memorizing performed significantly worse on 24-h later item recall than those who did not change context (17% lower accuracy, p < 0.001). In particular memorizing in VR as opposed to a real environment lowers accuracy of recall in a real environment (24% lower, p = 0.001).

Using virtual reality to understand context-dependent spatial memory

“…and virtually (i.e., VR room condition) reinstated environments, performance in the latter condition was perpetually lower than that in the former. This pattern of results is congruous with findings from studies comparing spatial memory in real and virtual environments (e.g., Lamers & Lanen, 2021;Reichherzer et al, 2018). Seeing that both real and virtual reinstatements produced significantly better spatial memory in comparison to a different or partially reinstated environment, it can be concluded that remembering locations in a virtual replica of the encoding environment may be effective, but not as efficacious as remembering in the actual encoding environment.…”

“…Additionally, it examined the use of VR to recreate realworld environments for generating context-dependent spatial memory. Given how previous VR-based context-dependent research tend to converge on memory for words (e.g., Lamers & Lanen, 2021;Shin et al, 2021;Wälti et al, 2019), this study contributes substantially to the existing literature as it provides new insights into the utilization of virtual environments for reinstating the encoding environment and eliciting accurate spatial memory.…”

“…Given the ability of VR to create semantically and perceptually charged experiences due to its immersive nature, scientists interested in the phenomenon of environmental context-dependent memory (e.g., Lamers & Lanen, 2021;Shin et al, 2021;Wälti et al, 2019) have incorporated VR technology into their work. To name a few, recent VR studies have examined how reinstatement of physical contexts affect free recall memory for seen words (Shin et al, 2021;Wälti et al, 2019), recognition of pictures (Lamers & Lanen, 2021), as well as recognition memory for both heard (Parker et al, 2020) and seen words (Shamei & Gick, 2020). These studies generally involve reinstating landscapes (Shamei & Gick, 2020;Shin et al, 2021;Wälti et al, 2019, Experiment 2.1), background colors (Wälti et al, 2019, Experiment 1.1), and physical environments (Lamers & Lanen, 2021).…”

“…To name a few, recent VR studies have examined how reinstatement of physical contexts affect free recall memory for seen words (Shin et al, 2021;Wälti et al, 2019), recognition of pictures (Lamers & Lanen, 2021), as well as recognition memory for both heard (Parker et al, 2020) and seen words (Shamei & Gick, 2020). These studies generally involve reinstating landscapes (Shamei & Gick, 2020;Shin et al, 2021;Wälti et al, 2019, Experiment 2.1), background colors (Wälti et al, 2019, Experiment 1.1), and physical environments (Lamers & Lanen, 2021).…”

Enhancing Learning and Retention with Distinctive Virtual Reality Environments and Mental Context Reinstatement

“…Discussion D3). 1,11,28 Our results provide evidence that contextual support optimises language learning in a manner that leads to high retention-but only when three critical conditions are met: First, participants must subjectively experience the VR-based contexts as actual environments that they feel like they are physically inhabiting during learning (i.e., they must report a high sense of presence). Second, a unique context must support the learning of each language.…”