Spatial Mnemonics Using Virtual Reality

Virtual reality displays, such as head-mounted displays (HMD) can provide superior spatial awareness by leveraging the vestibular and proprioceptive senses. Since the classical times, people have used memory palaces as a spatial mnemonic to help remember information by organizing it spatially in an environment and associating it with salient features in that environment. This paper reports a user study exploring whether using virtual memory palaces with a head mounted display (HMD) improves recall over using a traditional desktop display. Forty participants were asked to recall faces seen on both types. A statistically significant improvement of 8.8% in recall accuracy was found for HMD over Desktop. Users reported higher satisfaction as well. This could be a first step in using virtual environments for creating memorable experiences that enhance productivity through better recall of information organized in virtual memory palaces.