How does schema theory apply to real versus virtual memories?
Flannery K.A.; Walles R.
2003
Cyberpsychology and Behavior
22
10.1089/109493103321640347
Schemas are cognitive frameworks that guide memory, aide in the interpretation of events, and influence how we retrieve stored memories1. The purpose of this study was to explore how schemas operate in a well-known environment and to examine whether or not schemas operate differently in real versus virtual environments. Twenty-four undergraduate students from a small liberal arts college in the northeast participated for course credit. Two identical offices (a real office and a virtual office) were created and filled with eight consistent and eight inconsistent items. Each participant explored either the real office or the virtual office for 20 seconds without any knowledge that their memory would be tested. After leaving the office, participants completed a recognition task and a short demographic questionnaire. Overall sensitivity and higher confidence in recognition memory scores was found for inconsistent compared to consistent items. Greater support for the consistency effect was observed in this study and interpreted in terms of the dynamic memory model2, 3 and the schema-plus-correction model4. The results also demonstrate that virtual reality paradigms may produce similar outcomes compared to the real world in terms of some memory processes, but additional design factors must be considered if the researcher's goal is to create equivalent paradigms.
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