The Effect of Learning in a Virtual Environment on Explicit and Implicit Memory by Applying a Process Dissociation Procedure

Virtual reality-based neuropsychological assessment has unique features that have the potential to increase the level of ecological validity of test results. Based on findings from the literature on the task difficulty of cognitive tasks embedded into virtual environments, we aimed to explore the task difficulty hypothesis of virtual reality in memory assessment. Our main objective was to test for differences or equivalences between performance on explicit and on implicit memory tasks in three learning environments: a computerized measure, a 3D desktop environment, and a 3D virtual environment. Seventy-seven healthy participants, aged between 19 and 39 years old, enrolled in the study and were randomly assigned to the learning conditions and responded to typical virtual reality measures. Outcomes of explicit and implicit memory resulted after applying Process Dissociation Procedure. One-way analysis of variance did not reveal a significant main effect of learning environment on explicit memory performance and equivalence testing showed similar performance on implicit memory across the learning conditions. In our study, both controlled and automatic memory processes were not influenced by the learning environment.