Effects of Enactment in Episodic Memory: A Pilot Virtual Reality Study with Young and Elderly Adults
Abstract
None of the previous studies on aging have tested the influence of action with respect
to the degree of interaction with the environment (active or passive navigation) and the
source of itinerary choice (self or externally imposed), on episodic memory (EM) encoding.
The aim of this pilot study was to explore the influence of these factors on feature binding
(the association between what, where, and when) in EM and on the subjective sense of
remembering. Navigation in a virtual city was performed by 64 young and 64 older adults in
one of four modes of exploration: (1) passive condition where participants were immersed
as passengers of a virtual car [no interaction, no itinerary control (IC)], (2) IC (the subject
chose the itinerary, but did not drive the car), (3) low, or (4) high navigation control (the
subject just moved the car on rails or drove the car with a steering-wheel and a gas pedal
on a fixed itinerary, respectively). The task was to memorize as many events encountered
in the virtual environment as possible along with their factual (what), spatial (where), and
temporal (when) details, and then to perform immediate and delayed memory tests. An
age-related decline was evidenced for immediate and delayed feature binding. Compared
to passive and high navigation conditions, and regardless of age-groups, feature binding
was enhanced by low navigation and IC conditions. The subjective sense of remembering
was boosted by the IC in older adults. Memory performance following high navigation was
specifically linked to variability in executive functions.The present findings suggest that the
decision of the itinerary is beneficial to boost EM in aging, although it does not eliminate
age-related deficits. Active navigation can also enhance EM when it is not too demanding
for subjects’ cognitive resources
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