Memories are important. The ability to recognize something that has been seen before, or to recall something at a time other than when it was first perceived is crucial to learning, helping us to visualize and predict outcomes based on past events — as well as protecting us from repeating mistakes (in principle.)
As humans, many of us spend our lives either creating or recalling memories. This cognitive activity is broken up into two types; short-term and long-term. Short-term memories are stored for up to a few minutes and allow tasks to be performed easily — being used hundreds of times daily without conscious awareness. Long-term memories are those valuable enough to retain for a greater period. For example, having used the TV remote within the last few minutes to change the volume, it’s easily found again without having to hunt around. Finding it for the first time however isn’t so easy, unless its location was committed to long-term memory when it was stored away the previous day.
Nostalgia is a common phenomenon and curious byproduct of our long-term memories. It can be described as a feeling or sense of bittersweet affinity for something experienced in the past — triggered by a reminder in conversation, in the ice cream that smells or tastes like the strawberries we used to eat at Grandma’s house, or in the face of the cute puppy across the street that looks like the dearly missed family dog. These types of triggers result in the recollection of vague and foggy images, feelings and sensory memories.
The same thoughts and feelings can be applied to media that struck a chord with your emotional core; a movie where you connected with the protagonist, a book that sucked you in or a game in which you grew attached to the character you were playing, the story that unfolded or the world and environment you were transported to.
Particularly with MMO’s — titles with massively multiplayer online gameplay — players develop social attachments and build long-term friendships and memories with people who live thousands of miles apart. It’s interesting to think that those who have never met in the real-world have these deep, vivid memories of spending time together in a virtual universe — and the memories are very, very real.
The problem with traditional 2D/ flat screen-driven presentations of video games and media is that while they can invoke deep connection and transport the viewer to environments and situations normally out of their reach — memories formed here are those of sitting in a room in front of a screen, with friends or otherwise, and being told a story. Not necessarily acting as a ‘part’ of that story.
The most vivid memories are those that illicit a response from different senses, and this is in line with how the brain usually stores experiences.
In non-VR movies and games, there is not enough interplay between the viewer or player and the environment — the normal memory-making process that relies on a range of sensory input is limited by nature of the physical detachment of non-VR media. In-game actions performed on-screen are separated from those performed in real life, with muscle memory and spatial movement being reserved for button presses and control of joysticks to input a select range of predetermined actions on-screen.
In the very near future, the capabilities of Virtual Reality will expand upon our ability to create memories within virtual worlds, in many ways indistinguishable to the brain from a real-world experience.
If people can have such strong connections to a 2D/ flat universe and characters — it almost goes without saying that the possibilities within a VR setting for that type of attachment are limitless. Interactions within VR move beyond key presses and simple instructions, to visceral and realistic feelings of having ‘gone’ to a particular virtual location and actually performed physical actions there, perhaps even receiving some reactivity via haptic feedback — more aligned with the brain’s natural way of combining information from a range of sensory understanding into one ‘memory.’
Because VR is such a potent vehicle for the creation of new memories — allowing the user to engage with a simulation, with little distraction from the outside world — Virtual Reality exposure therapy (VRET) has been developed as a therapeutic technique, helping patients create new and more reassuring memories when faced with a simulated recreation of a panic inducing situation.
Patients with phobias or anxiety disorders such as Cleithropia (the fear of being trapped) can work through stressful situations such as being stuck in an elevator or on a train whilst in a safe, comforting environment in the real world — through the use of a VR headset and headphones — all the while receiving guidance and reassurance from their therapist. This can have powerful healing effects. Back in 2012, researchers at the University of Barcelona discovered that VRET is just as effective as traditional exposure therapy and can be especially useful to patients who would prefer exposure with less risk physically.
Giving people an arena to act out their deepest fears or experience the joys of open-world play with little to no real-world risk allows for a presence of mind, immersion and the believability required to completely memorize an experience for life. VR can provide this platform and at the current rate of development, will prove to be more than just a medium for immersive and realistic entertainment, but also as an invaluable tool in education, therapy and communications.
Ciaran Foley is CEO of Ukledo and Immersive Entertainment, Inc. a Southern California virtual reality software company developing a new virtual engagement platform called Virtual Universe (VU).
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