Title: Using Virtual Reality to Unpack the Benefits of Context-Dependent Memory

Abstract: How does our environment impact what we will later remember? Early work in real-world environments suggested that having matching encoding/retrieval contexts improves memory. However, some laboratory-based studies have failed to replicate this advantageous context-dependent memory effect. Using virtual reality methods, this work identified circumstances when context-dependent memory effects were most likely to be found. In Study 1, I examined the influence of memory schema and dynamic environments. Participants (N = 240) remembered more objects when in the same virtual environment (context) as during encoding. This benefit to recall memory, however, traded-off with falsely ‘recognizing’ more similar lures. Experimentally manipulating the virtual objects and environments revealed that a relevant object/environment schema aids recall (but not recognition), though a dynamic background does not. In Study 2, I examined whether grasping and interacting with objects would benefit recognition memory, compared to merely looking at the objects. Participants (N = 60) were no more likely to correctly recognize objects that they were able to grasp when making judgments about whether they had been previously seen or not. Furthermore, the virtual reality paradigm was designed to be employed not only for in-lab data collection (Study 1 and 2), but also for remote, world-wide data collection. Advantages and disadvantages of implementing this type of remote virtual reality data collection procedure are discussed. The findings presented here further our understanding of when and how context affects our memory through a more naturalistic approach to studying such effects.