Influence of Familiarity, Aesthetic Value, and Change Type on Visual Memory of Real-World Scenes in a Virtual Reality Change/No-Change Paradigm

The capacity and limitations of visual long-term memory (VLTM) has been investigated for decades. The process of VLTM encoding is not perfect, with a bias toward gist over verbatim information exacerbated due to time and other factors. For instance, familiarity with a visual stimulus has been shown to improve STM capabilities, thereby improving consolidation and LTM storage. Aesthetics also may play an important role in VLTM encoding. Subjective feelings regarding the aesthetic value of a stimulus could influence ability to remember certain details. In this study, we investigated how VLTM of indoor, cityscape, and landscape scenes were impacted by familiarity, aesthetic value, and change type in a virtual reality environment. Participants were exposed to 36 scenes. For each scene, participants used an 8-point scale to rate familiarity and aesthetic value. Afterward, a distractor task was used to ensure items were not being held in working memory. At test, participants were shown 36 scenes; half were identical to study and half were changed. Changes included color changes, inversions, or new images of the same style. Change/no-change responses were collected after each scene. A significant main effect of scene type was found for familiarity and for aesthetics, indicating notable and consistent differences in familiarity and aesthetic judgement between indoor, cityscape, and landscape scenes. Additionally, a main effect of change type was found, with a significant interaction between change type and scene type. Interaction appears to be driven by individual stimulus characteristics rather than being caused by change type. Surprisingly, accuracy was not systematically impacted by familiarity, aesthetics, or scene type. This study is the first of its kind to study VLTM in a immersive VR setting, providing new insight into factors that influence VLTM mechanisms in a more real-world setting.