The role of immersion during situated memory recall within virtual worlds

Abstract

Eliciting accurate knowledge from individuals is a non-trivial challenge. In this paper, we present the evaluation of a virtual reality-based approach to knowledge elicitation informed by situated cognition theory. This approach places users into 3D virtual worlds representing real-world locations and asks them to recall information about tasks completed in those locations. Through an empirical A/B evaluation of 64 users, we investigate whether the situated context provided by these virtual environments is adequate to assist with memory recall, and explore whether the added immersion provided by a head-mounted display (HMD) may meaningfully improve user memory recall capability when compared with a desktop display experience. Results suggest that those provided with a HMD may be able to recall more information about a sequenced task than those provided with a desktop display.