Effects of Immersion and Embodiment on Memory in Virtual Reality

As digital information technologies advance, they pave the way for fully immersive 3-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds, such as the metaverse. Before proceeding with metaverse implementations, it is imperative to comprehend how cognition — processing, storing, and recall of information — functions in 3D environments. Therefore, we conducted a large-scale controlled laboratory experiment across virtual settings varying in 2 levels of immersion (high: VR HMD vs. low: flat screen) and embodiment (high: self-motion vs. low: self-anchored), along with a static 2D control condition. Following a 10-minute interaction with a data line-graph, participants completed an immediate free recall pen-and-drawing task to assess short-term visuospatial memory. Five evaluators assessed the drawings based on their similarity to the presented 2D/3D graphs. Results from the final sample of 172 participants, indicate visuospatial memory is likely neither impaired nor enhanced in the metaverse as immersion and embodiment seem to not significantly affect recall performance.