Investigation of the Impact of Exploring a Novel Virtual Environment on Memory Recall

The article introduces an original VR-based experiment which explores context-dependent memory recall in humans. It specifically examines the recall of correct and falsely induced semantic memories. With the aid of VR head-mounted displays, 92 students of psychology were placed in a computer-generated indoor virtual environment and asked to memorize the presented lists of words. Afterwards, the participants were placed in the same indoor virtual environment or an alternative outdoor virtual environment and asked to recall the words. The number of correct and falsely induced words was then measured. On average, women recalled significantly more correct words from the list than men, regardless of the environmental context. Despite the assumptions, we did not observe a separate effect of exposure to different environments during learning and recall of material on memory performance. Likewise, we did not detect any effects of the learning context or biological sex in the case of the production of false memories. These results provide a novel insight into previous knowledge regarding the memory processes that occur in virtual environments. Although we failed to confirm the role of context in recalling learned material in general, we found a hint that this context might interact with specific memory processes of biological sexes. However, the design of this study only captured the effect of changing the environment during memory recall and did not address the role of specific context in remembering learning material. Further research is therefore needed to better investigate these phenomena and examine the role of biological sex in context-dependent memory processes.

When exploring new environments, people regularly alternate among many sources of spatial information including direct visual input, navigation aids such as maps and mobile devices, and verbal route descriptions. These spatial representations typically depict the environment from one of two perspectives: first-person, embedded route perspective or top-down, bird's eye survey perspective. Visual spatial cognition research has explored the nature of learning within each of these perspectives independently, but little work has been done to explore how on-line visual processing of combined perspectives affects cognition, meaning there is little understanding of the cognitive costs of using different navigation tools to learn large-scale environments. This dissertation addresses such questions through two experiments that guide participants through simple paths in large-scale environments, each consisting of a simple path through a small virtual town presented on a desktop computer display. By timing participants' movement through each environment and how they respond to either externally-controlled or participant-controlled perspective switches, the experiments measure the cognitive load of visually processing dynamic perspectives during navigation. These on-line processing measures are complemented by tests of visual recognition and recall memory, which reveal how switching perspectives affects the accuracy of the resulting spatial mental model. The results indicate that the cognitive load associated with changing perspectives is primarily dependent on the quantity of visual information the change introduces -- the transformation itself is not particularly disorienting after the first exposure to the environment. Furthermore, although forced perspective switches do not appear to significantly affect spatial memory accuracy relative to viewing the environment from a consistent perspective, navigator-controlled switching results in significantly more accurate spatial memory, indicating that navigation aids which allow for perspective control might better support spatial learning than fixed-perspective interfaces. The findings also support previous research showing that route perspective navigation generally yields more accurate spatial memory than survey perspective learning, particularly after extensive experience in the environment. Overall, the findings demonstrate many new aspects of how perspective affects spatial cognition, with implications for spatial learning and the design of navigation aids.

Temporal memory enables us to remember the temporal order of events happening in our life. The human medial temporal lobe (MTL) appears to contain neural representations supporting temporal memory formation, but the cellular mechanisms that preserve temporal order information for recall are largely unknown. Here, we examined whether human MTL neuronal activity represents the temporal position of events during memory formation and recall, using invasive single and multi-unit recordings in human epilepsy patients (n = 19). Participants freely navigated a virtual environment in order to explore and remember locations and temporal positions of objects. During each exploration period, they sequentially encountered two or three different objects, placed in different locations. This allowed us to examine single- and multi-unit neuronal firing rates (FR) as a function of the temporal position the objects were presented in. We found that a significant number of multi-units and single-units in various MTL regions including the hippocampus showed selectivity to the temporal position of objects during the exploration period. During recall, patients were asked to indicate which one of two objects from the same trial was found latter. Neural firing rates during recall showed a selectivity supporting recall of temporal positions. Interestingly, most of the selective single-units that stayed selective during encoding and recall preserved their temporal position preference. Our results thus suggest that neuronal activity in the human MTL contains a preserved neural code for temporal order in memory formation and recall.

The System Usability Scale (SuS) survey is a widely respected tool for measuring usability. Generally, a SuS score is administered directly after a usability test to assess the usability and user experience of digital products. However, some researchers have used SuS as a survey as part of longitudinal ‘in the wild’ trials where SuS is often completed some period after the trial. The aim of this research was to determine if a participant’s memory of a product’s usability would change if a SuS survey was administered at different times after a test. Hence, we sought to understand if recalling the usability of a digital technology was affected by temporal bias or memory decay. This paper includes results and findings from two studies, study 1 involved evaluating a web application and study 2 involved evaluating a virtual learning environment. Collectively the two studies had 212 participants (n = 212). The findings conclude that there is no significant change of the user’s recollection of the usability of digital product as evidenced by an analysis of users who completed multiple SuS surveys over a short term period of 3 weeks or over an extended period of time of 6 months. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS The system usability scale is used to test for memory decay and temporal bias in judging the user experience of technologies at different time points. 212 participants took part in two studies ranging from 3 weeks to 6 months. There is no evidence that there is a temporal bias or memory decay when users complete a SuS survey at the two different time points of 3 weeks and 6 months.

Evaluating the effects of collaboration and competition in navigation tasks and spatial knowledge acquisition within virtual reality environments

The DDS Synthetic Memories project has developed techniques using Gen-AI technologies to recreate past visual experiences that may have faded, changed, or been forgotten. The Immersive Synthetic Memories project extends these efforts to immerse subjects in virtual recreations of their memories. The installation invites participants into an intimate setting to recall memories instantly rendered with generative AI and spatialized for VR headsets. The project is a collaboration with Barcelona-based Domestic Data Streamers (DDS), the University of Southern California’s Mobile & Environmental Media Lab, and Scott Fisher’s course Spatial Imaging for XR. This paper explores the artistic and technical processes, the AI pipeline converting 2D visuals into 3D 180° immersive spaces, development challenges, and potential applications in mental health and memory studies.

With Alzheimer’s disease becoming more prevalent, finding effective treatment is imperative. While no pharmacological treatment has yet proven to be efficient, we explore how technology can be integrated into non-pharmacological intervention to enhance its benefits. We propose a new and unique version of Music Therapy, an already existing therapy known to be beneficial. Music therapy has been shown to improve emotions and certain cognitive functions, which is the main focus of our study. To this aim, we designed a virtual reality environment consisting of a music theatre in which participants are immersed among the audience. A meticulously chosen selection of songs is presented on stage accompanied by visual effects. Results show that the environment decreases negative emotions, increases positive emotions, and improved memory performances were observed in most participants following the immersive experience. We speculate that by improving emotions through adaptive music therapy, our environment facilitates memory recall. With virtual reality now being easily accessible and inexpensive, we believe this novel approach could help patients through the disease.