The Effect of Memory Schemas on Object Recognition in Virtual Environments

Prior theoretical work on memory schemas, an influential concept of memory from the field of cognitive psychology, is presented for application to fidelity of computer graphics simulations. The basic assumption is that an individual's prior experience will influence how he or she perceives, comprehends, and remembers new information in a scene. Schemas are knowledge structures; a scene could incorporate objects that fit into a specific context or schema (e.g., an academic's office) referred to as consistent objects. A scene could also include objects that are not related to the schema in place referred to as inconsistent objects. In this paper, we describe ongoing development of a rendering framework related to scene perception based on schemas. An experiment was carried out to explore the effect of object type and rendering quality on object memory recognition in a room. The computer graphics simulation was displayed on a Head Mounted Display (HMD) utilizing stereo imagery and head tracking. Thirty-six participants across three conditions of varied rendering quality of the same space were exposed to the computer graphics environment and completed a memory recognition task. Results revealed that schema consistent elements of the scene were more likely to be recognized than inconsistent information. Overall higher confidence ratings were assigned for consistent objects compared to inconsistent ones. Total object recognition was better for the mid-quality condition compared to the low-quality one. The presence of shadow information, though, did not affect recognition of either consistent or inconsistent objects. Further explorations of the effect of schemas on spatial awareness in synthetic worlds could lead to identifying areas of a computer graphics scene that require better quality of rendering as well as areas for which lower fidelity could be sufficient. The ultimate goal of this work is to simulate a perceptual process rather than to simulate physics.

[1]  Earl Hunt,et al.  The Transfer of Spatial Knowledge in Virtual Environment Training , 1998, Presence.

[2]  William F. Brewer.  Bartlett's concept of the schema and its impact on theories of knowledge representation in contemporary cognitive psychology. , 2000 .

[3]  T. Pettigrew,et al.  Memory for schema-relevant information: a meta-analytic resolution. , 1992, The British journal of social psychology.

[4]  Katerina Mania,et al.  Fidelity Metrics for Virtual Environment Simulations Based on Spatial Memory Awareness States , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[5]  James P. Bliss,et al.  The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Administering Spatial Navigation Training to Firefighters , 1997, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[6]  Hugh Coolican.  Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology , 1993 .

[7]  A. Friedman.  Framing pictures: the role of knowledge in automatized encoding and memory for gist. , 1979, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[8]  Katerina Mania,et al.  Perceptual sensitivity to head tracking latency in virtual environments with varying degrees of scene complexity , 2004, APGV '04.

[9]  J. Neuschatz,et al.  Recollections of things schematic: room schemas revisited. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[10]  Lester C. Loschky,et al.  User performance with gaze contingent multiresolutional displays , 2000, ETRA.

[11]  W. Brewer,et al.  The nature and functions of schemas. , 1984 .

[12]  Rena Walles,et al.  How Does Schema Theory Apply to Real versus Virtual Memories? , 2003, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[13]  Neff Walker,et al.  Evaluating the importance of multi-sensory input on memory and the sense of presence in virtual environments , 1999, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality (Cat. No. 99CB36316).

[14]  J. Henderson,et al.  Does consistent scene context facilitate object perception? , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[15]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Taking different perspectives on a story. , 1977 .

[16]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  Dynamic Memory Revisited , 1999 .

[17]  W. Brewer,et al.  Role of schemata in memory for places , 1981, Cognitive Psychology.

[18]  Katerina Mania,et al.  An experimental exploration of the relationship between subjective impressions of illumination and physical fidelity , 2005, Comput. Graph..

[19]  Mary K. Kaiser,et al.  Perceived Orientation in Physical and Virtual Environments: Changes in Perceived Orientation as a Function of Idiothetic Information Available , 2002, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[20]  Marvin Minsky,et al.  A framework for representing knowledge" in the psychology of computer vision , 1975 .

[21]  A. Friedman.  Framing pictures: the role of knowledge in automatized encoding and memory for gist. , 1979, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[22]  C. McGarty,et al.  Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology , 2003 .

[23]  Alan Chalmers,et al.  Detail to Attention: Exploiting Visual Tasks for Selective Rendering , 2003, Rendering Techniques.

[24]  Katerina Mania,et al.  Simulating spatial assumptions , 2003, SIGGRAPH '03.

[25]  Marvin Minsky,et al.  A framework for representing knowledge , 1974 .

[26]  John H. Bailey,et al.  Learning and Transfer of Spatial Knowledge in a Virtual Environment , 1994 .

[27]  Benjamin Kuipers,et al.  A FRAME FOR FRAMES: Representing Knowledge for Recognition , 1975 .