Li Yue, Johansson Mikael, Nikolaev Andrey R
Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
NPJ Sci Learn. 2025 May 11;10(1):25. doi: 10.1038/s41539-025-00321-6.
Contextual shifts are crucial for episodic memory, setting event boundaries during event segmentation. While lab research provides insights, it often lacks the complexity of real-world experiences. We addressed this gap by examining perceptual and conceptual boundaries using virtual reality (VR). Participants acted as salespeople, interacting with customers in a VR environment. Spatial boundaries separated visually distinct booths, while conceptual boundaries were defined by customer requests. Memory was assessed through a recency discrimination task. Results indicated boundary crossings impaired sequence memory, consistent with previous findings. Crucially, conceptual boundaries, but not spatial boundaries, significantly influenced the accuracy of sequence memory, suggesting that top-down processes dominate bottom-up perceptual processes in naturalistic event segmentation. Confidence in correct responses indicated that perceived memory quality was highest when participants stayed within and did not cross both spatially and conceptually defined events. Findings highlight VR's effectiveness for studying hierarchical contextual influences in interactive episodic memory tasks.
情境转换对于情景记忆至关重要，在事件分割过程中设定事件边界。虽然实验室研究提供了见解，但它往往缺乏现实世界体验的复杂性。我们通过使用虚拟现实（VR）检查感知和概念边界来弥补这一差距。参与者扮演销售人员，在VR环境中与客户互动。空间边界将视觉上不同的展位隔开，而概念边界则由客户请求定义。通过近因辨别任务评估记忆。结果表明，边界穿越会损害序列记忆，这与之前的研究结果一致。至关重要的是，概念边界而非空间边界显著影响序列记忆的准确性，这表明在自然主义事件分割中，自上而下的过程主导自下而上的感知过程。对正确反应的信心表明，当参与者停留在空间和概念上定义的事件范围内且未穿越时，感知到的记忆质量最高。研究结果突出了VR在研究交互式情景记忆任务中的分层情境影响方面的有效性。
