Doorways Do Not Always Cause Forgetting: Studying the Effect of Locomotion Technique and Doorway Visualization in Virtual Reality

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Abstract

The “doorway effect” predicts that crossing an environmental boundary affects memory negatively. In virtual reality (VR), we can design the crossing and the appearance of such boundaries in non-realistic ways. However, it is unclear whether locomotion techniques like teleportation, which avoid crossing the boundary altogether, still induce the effect. Furthermore, it is unclear how different appearances of a doorway act as a boundary and thus induce the effect. To address these questions, we conducted two lab studies. First, we conceptually replicated prior doorway effect studies in VR using natural walking and teleportation. Second, we investigated the effect of five doorway visualizations, ranging from doors to portals. The results show no difference in object recognition performance due to the presence of a doorway, locomotion technique, or doorway visualization. We discuss the implications of these findings on the role of boundaries in event-based memory and the design of boundary interactions in VR.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI '24: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Number of pages13
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publication date2024
Article number681
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
EventCHI '24: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Honolulo HL, United States
Duration: 11 May 202416 May 2024

Conference

ConferenceCHI '24: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHonolulo HL
Period11/05/202416/05/2024

Keywords

  • Faculty of Science
  • doorway
  • effect
  • virtual
  • reality
  • vr
  • walking
  • teleportation
  • environment
  • event
  • boundary
  • memory
  • forgetting
  • object
  • recognition

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