Audio Transcript Auto-generated
- 00:01 - 00:03
So for this week's artifact on memory, we will be
- 00:03 - 00:06
discussing the implications of the art technology on memory.
- 00:07 - 00:10
Thio Make it truly meta I'll be recording over a
- 00:11 - 00:13
Prezi, which will simulate some of the special element of
- 00:14 - 00:16
a virtual memory palace, which we will be discussing a
- 00:16 - 00:20
bit in this presentation for the presentation itself will first
- 00:20 - 00:22
talk a little bit about the relevance of the arts
- 00:22 - 00:23
in today's society.
- 00:24 - 00:27
Then we'll be moving on to VRS relations to memory
- 00:28 - 00:29
first, starting with memory palaces.
- 00:30 - 00:33
And after that we will discuss some of the elements
- 00:34 - 00:36
of the are that have been used to improve special
- 00:37 - 00:40
memory before moving on to applications, as well as some
- 00:40 - 00:43
ways to improve the technology for better recall.
- 00:45 - 00:47
So starting off what is V.
- 00:47 - 00:47
R. V.
- 00:48 - 00:51
R. Or virtual reality is a simulated experience that could
- 00:51 - 00:53
be similar to or completely different from, the real world.
- 00:54 - 00:56
It has existed in some form since the 19 fifties.
- 00:56 - 01:00
Interest in the applications of the technology everyone substantially due
- 01:00 - 01:02
to coronavirus, imposed social distancing rules.
- 01:03 - 01:06
In addition to head mounted displays like the Oculus rift,
- 01:07 - 01:09
the onset of quarantine has triggered him or rapid adoption
- 01:10 - 01:13
of virtual technologies ranging from online social gaming platforms like
- 01:13 - 01:18
Fortnight to Online teleconferencing absolutely zoom as thes.
- 01:18 - 01:22
Absent technologies continued to advance and become more prevalent in
- 01:22 - 01:22
our society.
- 01:23 - 01:25
It is in our interest to learn more about them
- 01:25 - 01:26
and how they affect the brain.
- 01:27 - 01:31
This presentation will focus on memory and particularly special memory
- 01:31 - 01:33
and how it could be aided by PR.
- 01:37 - 01:39
So talking about special memory, a great place to start
- 01:40 - 01:40
is memory palaces.
- 01:41 - 01:44
Memory palaces are the idea that you can create a,
- 01:45 - 01:49
um, imagined spatial environment in which you can store information
- 01:50 - 01:51
so that you may recall it easier.
- 01:53 - 01:54
Um, they have been around for a long time.
- 01:55 - 01:58
It's reported that in antiquity the Roman senator Cicero would
- 01:59 - 02:02
divide the amphitheater up into different sections and associate each
- 02:02 - 02:03
section with a different part of his speech.
- 02:04 - 02:08
This would aid him in memorizing it, especially during some
- 02:08 - 02:10
of those heated Roman debates.
- 02:11 - 02:14
This idea has been consistently used since that time, and
- 02:14 - 02:17
from the slide here we can see a drawing of
- 02:17 - 02:21
a memory palace from the 16th century Italian philosopher Gilo
- 02:22 - 02:26
Camillo from his famous work leader of memory.
- 02:31 - 02:34
So in this presentation I will focus on two factors
- 02:35 - 02:39
that have been shown to increase recall for virtual reality
- 02:40 - 02:43
technologies. The first is presence.
- 02:44 - 02:47
So with the advent of virtual reality and computer graphics
- 02:48 - 02:53
technology, we can now render spatial representations to a simulated
- 02:54 - 02:58
three. The environment research on simulated memory palaces have found
- 02:58 - 03:01
that there have been two key factors involved with increasing
- 03:02 - 03:02
their efficiency.
- 03:03 - 03:06
The first idea is presence, which is the feeling of
- 03:06 - 03:06
being there.
- 03:07 - 03:12
Research from Jar Vin in and colleagues in 4011 found
- 03:12 - 03:16
that when subjects in virtual environments reported higher levels of
- 03:16 - 03:20
presence, they recalled greater amounts of locational information about simulation
- 03:21 - 03:22
research by Lynette.
- 03:23 - 03:24
All and many.
- 03:24 - 03:28
And Chalmers found that the greater level of presence users
- 03:28 - 03:30
experience the MAWR.
- 03:30 - 03:33
They will remember details of the virtual environment, such as
- 03:33 - 03:35
virtual objects, special layouts, message content.
- 03:37 - 03:42
Separate studies that, um, have measured the effect of interactivity
- 03:43 - 03:45
on users of E.
- 03:45 - 03:49
R. Um, have found that interactivity also improves Memory Studies
- 03:50 - 03:55
by Brooks in 1999 compared players who guided themselves on
- 03:55 - 03:59
tours of a virtual building using a joystick ah to
- 04:00 - 04:02
another control group that was guided passively on the tour.
- 04:03 - 04:08
Um, and they found that the A group that was
- 04:08 - 04:12
able to interact with the environment was better able to
- 04:13 - 04:14
recall the layout of the building.
- 04:15 - 04:17
Though the initial results were actually negligible.
- 04:18 - 04:21
They found that one week later, the group that had
- 04:22 - 04:26
used the joystick performed 25% better, um, when tested.
- 04:28 - 04:31
Similarly, studies comparing V R headsets to two D monitors
- 04:32 - 04:36
have found that the headset group outperformed the Monitor group
- 04:36 - 04:40
by 8.8% when having to recall information stored in different
- 04:40 - 04:44
rooms. Um, while this definitely comes from my own speculation
- 04:44 - 04:48
as a novice cycle in 10 Student, these findings makes
- 04:48 - 04:50
sense toe what we've learned in the chapter so far.
- 04:51 - 04:54
We know different parts of the brain are associated with
- 04:54 - 04:55
different parts of memory.
- 04:55 - 04:58
When we're exposed to new information, the more detail it
- 04:58 - 05:01
is, the more and more we're able to interact with
- 05:01 - 05:02
the mortal stimulate our brains.
- 05:03 - 05:06
If we think about this idea through the heavy and
- 05:06 - 05:09
model also discussed in the in the chapter, the more
- 05:09 - 05:11
parts of our brain that are stimulated, the more parts
- 05:11 - 05:14
of our the more neurons that will fire as a
- 05:14 - 05:18
result, when more neurons fire together, Um there will be
- 05:18 - 05:23
a stronger association between them, which would make sense that
- 05:23 - 05:24
it might produce better memory.
- 05:29 - 05:29
So next up is applications.
- 05:36 - 05:39
Yeah, yeah, So the first is context dependent memory.
- 05:39 - 05:42
So when humans recall memories, we don't recall them like
- 05:43 - 05:46
a computer loading a file, but rather we reconstruct them.
- 05:46 - 05:49
While this process is useful, it's prone to many errors
- 05:50 - 05:52
like memory bias, miss a distribution, etcetera, etcetera.
- 05:53 - 05:54
As discussed in the book.
- 05:55 - 05:59
Even episodic episodes in vivid flash bull flashbulb memories are
- 05:59 - 06:01
prone to inaccuracy, especially as time moves on.
- 06:02 - 06:04
One use case for V R to be the reconstruction
- 06:05 - 06:07
of certain environments to trigger context.
- 06:07 - 06:11
Dependent memory research by Kelly and McNamara in 2000 and
- 06:11 - 06:13
eight have shown that BR can be effective in helping
- 06:14 - 06:18
people recall particular events when the technology is used to
- 06:18 - 06:21
reconstruct the location of an important memory.
- 06:22 - 06:24
In this situation, we are would act as a visual
- 06:24 - 06:29
cue to help patients better remember events such technology would
- 06:29 - 06:33
have used in criminal justice proceedings help victims of a
- 06:33 - 06:34
crime get better testimony.
- 06:35 - 06:37
As you can see, there's a running person on the
- 06:37 - 06:39
slide here that has to do with the personal antidote
- 06:40 - 06:40
that I have.
- 06:41 - 06:43
Um, while hopefully this isn't memory bias.
- 06:44 - 06:47
I often listen to podcasts when I run, and they're
- 06:48 - 06:50
usually about like the fact happy nonfiction.
- 06:51 - 06:54
So usually business history or just something that's happening in
- 06:54 - 06:54
the news.
- 06:55 - 07:00
Um, but so sometimes when I'm running on, Guy learned
- 07:00 - 07:01
something particularly interesting.
- 07:02 - 07:04
I not only remember the new fact, but I also
- 07:05 - 07:06
remember this spot that I learned it.
- 07:07 - 07:10
Ah, particular example I have is I studied abroad in
- 07:10 - 07:13
China sophomore year, and I remember one spot in China
- 07:14 - 07:16
where I was listening to a podcast about a new
- 07:16 - 07:16
Chinese company.
- 07:17 - 07:21
Um, and whatever that Chinese companies brought up today, I
- 07:22 - 07:23
always remember that one spot when I was running.
- 07:24 - 07:29
Conversely, when I'm running on familiar routes and I passed
- 07:29 - 07:33
by a particular spot, um, sometimes I'm reminded of past
- 07:33 - 07:36
podcast and information that I had learned while running in
- 07:36 - 07:36
that spot.
- 07:37 - 07:38
Oh, not realistic.
- 07:39 - 07:42
I could see how a virtually simulated environment of some
- 07:42 - 07:45
of these places I could made my recall of the
- 07:45 - 07:47
information that I learned in some of these podcasts.
- 07:52 - 07:56
Okay, so another use case is learning and education, which
- 07:56 - 07:58
is particularly relevant in the covert era.
- 07:58 - 08:02
A research paper by Master Student at Syracuse found that
- 08:02 - 08:03
we are positively increased.
- 08:03 - 08:06
The student's ability to learn a memorized Korean, as opposed
- 08:07 - 08:11
to students who were just using a desktop monitor in
- 08:11 - 08:16
the study examines how motivation and special presence are related
- 08:16 - 08:18
and their impact on memory.
- 08:18 - 08:21
After conducting the study, he found that v R increased
- 08:21 - 08:26
memory of students, the particularly of V R headset um,
- 08:27 - 08:29
compared to the to the monitor.
- 08:30 - 08:35
So, if possible, especially given how much online education there
- 08:35 - 08:35
is today.
- 08:36 - 08:39
Implementing immersive three D learning experiences in lieu of the
- 08:40 - 08:43
two D zoom vices may help drive engagement for students
- 08:44 - 08:46
and also increased retention and their ability to learn.
- 08:51 - 08:53
Lastly, a lot of research has been done on using
- 08:53 - 08:55
via our technology to help older adults with memory.
- 08:57 - 09:00
I studied by meeting colleagues, examine the role of active
- 09:01 - 09:04
encoding versus passing encoding and helping people to better memorize
- 09:05 - 09:07
special routes for both young and old people.
- 09:08 - 09:12
The study concluded that active encoding was more effective for
- 09:12 - 09:17
memory, um, than passive research, which makes sense given the
- 09:17 - 09:18
previous studies we talked about.
- 09:19 - 09:22
But also the effect was greater for older participants in
- 09:22 - 09:24
the study than compared to the young ones.
- 09:25 - 09:27
What makes this work so significant is that the study
- 09:27 - 09:31
also cites additional work where spatial memory has been linked
- 09:32 - 09:34
to executive function and episodic memory.
- 09:35 - 09:38
If such correlations exist, then V R could be used
- 09:38 - 09:42
to improve the general cognitive ability of older adults as
- 09:42 - 09:43
their memory begins to decline.
- 09:43 - 09:47
For me, this is especially relevant because my family has
- 09:47 - 09:47
a history of Alzheimer's.
- 09:48 - 09:50
So if a therapy like this could be developed to
- 09:50 - 09:55
help, like aging, adult or have increased memory, it could
- 09:56 - 09:58
potentially help someone in my family or maybe even myself.
- 10:00 - 10:04
Um, lastly, moving on to the technical improvements.
- 10:06 - 10:09
Um, I just wanted to touch just touch on some
- 10:09 - 10:11
of the aspects of V R.
- 10:11 - 10:17
That would help increase presence, especially eso one of the
- 10:17 - 10:18
biggest problems facing V.
- 10:18 - 10:18
R. Right now.
- 10:19 - 10:22
And perhaps the reason it hasn't been massively adopted is
- 10:23 - 10:23
the lack of visual fidelity.
- 10:25 - 10:29
When considering computer graphics, Um, we have to think about
- 10:29 - 10:32
a resolution versus frame rate drop out drop off.
- 10:33 - 10:37
Um, so while studies have shown that increases to resolution,
- 10:38 - 10:41
the level of detail in the pixels increases immersion.
- 10:41 - 10:45
They've also shown um, that frame rate the your ability
- 10:46 - 10:47
toe render different frames.
- 10:48 - 10:50
Um, you see the picture in the bottom there, um,
- 10:51 - 10:54
have both been found to independently increased immersion.
- 10:54 - 10:59
Br um usually an increase in one has to come
- 10:59 - 11:03
at the cost of the other due to the lack
- 11:03 - 11:05
of computational resource is.
- 11:05 - 11:10
So as technology improves, hopefully, immersion will advance as well,
- 11:11 - 11:15
because the visual aspect of V R would be improving.
- 11:16 - 11:20
But for now, a study by Walker on dhe colleagues
- 11:21 - 11:22
proposes a solution to this.
- 11:23 - 11:26
Rather than focusing on the visual component.
- 11:27 - 11:29
V. R can focus on multi sensory info is, well,
- 11:30 - 11:34
particularly, audio would be super useful with with just the
- 11:34 - 11:37
headphone, especially because you can get high level of audio
- 11:38 - 11:42
without much computational bandwidth.
- 11:44 - 11:44
Ah, nde.
- 11:44 - 11:49
This This multi sensory information audio has also been shown
- 11:49 - 11:52
to improve memory when combined with the V.
- 11:52 - 11:53
R. Um setting.
- 11:57 - 11:57
So conclusion.
- 11:58 - 12:01
Though we are still very limited by V.
- 12:01 - 12:04
R s adoption and held back by the computer technology
- 12:06 - 12:09
required to run it at high levels, it does have
- 12:09 - 12:11
a very promising future in a number of fields, including
- 12:12 - 12:12
the ones we touched on today.
- 12:13 - 12:15
Therapy, criminal justice and education.
- 12:16 - 12:20
Um, as the technology improves, we should expect subsequent increases
- 12:21 - 12:23
in the number of potential use cases for it, as
- 12:24 - 12:25
well as it to become just more prevalent in our
- 12:26 - 12:29
society. So much research will, of course, be needed to
- 12:29 - 12:33
better understand the effect of you are, um and what
- 12:33 - 12:35
it will do or the effect that will have to.
- 12:35 - 12:39
With the human brain and memory in particular, it is
- 12:39 - 12:42
clear that from the current research available, we are positively
- 12:43 - 12:47
effects, uh, the encoding and subsequent recall of information, especially
- 12:48 - 12:51
when presented in three D interactive virtual environments.
- 12:52 - 12:53
Anyway, that's all.
- 12:54 - 12:54
Thanks for listening.