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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Published on: January 26, 2024

Walking through doorways causes forgetting: situation models and experienced space.

Gabriel A Radvansky¹, David E Copeland

¹Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. gabriel.a.radvansky.1@nd.edu

Memory & Cognition

|November 30, 2006

Summary

Memory for objects is harder to recall when they are not actively associated with you or when you move to a new location. Spatial shifts significantly impact memory for currently associated items.

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Published on: February 19, 2018

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Human-Computer Interaction
Virtual Reality

Background:

Understanding object memory retrieval is crucial for designing intuitive virtual environments.
Prior research suggests context influences memory accessibility.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how object association and spatial navigation in virtual reality affect memory retrieval.
To differentiate between situation model and simpler memory-based explanations for these effects.

Main Methods:

Participants navigated a virtual space and were probed on object recall.
Object association (carried vs. set down) and spatial shifts (room changes) were manipulated.
Object recall accuracy and accessibility were measured.

Main Results:

Object information was less accessible for dissociated (set down) objects compared to associated (carried) objects.
Spatial shifts reduced object information availability, with a greater impact on associated objects.
The effect of spatial shifts on memory was more pronounced for currently associated objects.

Conclusions:

Findings support situation model theory, emphasizing the role of context and agent embedding in memory.
Simple memory-based models fail to explain the observed context-dependent memory retrieval.
Virtual environment design should consider spatial context and object-person associations for optimal user memory.