Scene Memory is Better for Dynamic Versus Static Experiences in Immersive Virtual Reality

• Author / Creator

  Romero, Anna S

• Everyday events are formed in immersive 360-degree 3D settings, but little is known regarding how the dynamic aspect of such experiences influences memories. Dynamism can signal a meaningful change during everyday life that creates more distinctive events from our continuous experiences of the world. Memory for distinct events requires retrieval from a specific perspective and construction of the layout, and these characteristics make up scene memory. Across two studies, we explored the prediction that dynamism preferentially affects scene-related aspects of memory. In immersive 3D 360-degree virtual reality, participants experienced immersive events (e.g., a hiking trail). Half of the immersive experiences included a dynamic object in the scene (e.g., jumping rabbits), whereas the other half included a static version of a semantically similar object (e.g., sitting rabbit). Study 1 was an incidental encoding task (i.e., no purposeful encoding of the event) with semantically congruent sounds (i.e., sounds that matched the event) for the dynamic condition. In Study 2 the sounds were removed, and encoding was made intentional. The changes from Study 1 to Study 2 ensured that our results were due to the manipulation of dynamism and to improve overall memory performance. After encoding, an Old/ New recognition memory test followed, in which participants were cued by the dynamically manipulated object (e.g., rabbit). Old responses were then followed by additional questions assessing scene (setting name and object location) and content (recall two additional objects from the event) memory. The results indicated better recognition memory in the dynamic than static condition. Moreover, dynamic experiences were also associated with better scene memory than static experiences, however, there were no differences in content memory. These results were replicated in Study 2. Together these findings reveal that dynamic experiences contribute to better scene-related aspects of memories. More broadly, our findings exemplify how we can use immersive 360-degree experiences to manipulate the dynamic nature of the real world to investigate how we form and remember events.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Psychology
  • Scene Memory
  • Object Memory
  • Virtual Reality
  • Episodic Memory
  • Memory
  • Scenes

• Graduation date

  Fall 2024

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-q7af-pt07

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.