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The Doorway Effect For An Object Layout Memory Task: An Examination Using Immersive Virtual Reality
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Description: **ABSTRACT** The "doorway effect" or location updating effect is the decrease in performance for a simple memory task after passing through a doorway. Walking through doorways, according to the Event Horizon Model, constitutes the passing of an event boundary and switching between two mental event models - thus creating an interference effect on memory items. While previous research has consistently demonstrated this effect using a simple memory task, the present study aimed to take a closer look at the robustness of this phenomenon by applying a new, more complex object layout memory task, using a highly immersive virtual reality. No convincing evidence for the presence of a location updating effect could be found, but this study still reveals potential future research opportunities. In particular, using measures of subjective confidence as well as higher working memory loads seems to be a promising direction to examine the generalizablity of the "doorway effect" to different memory tasks. --- This is my Master Thesis for the Cognitive Science study program at University of Tuebingen. Preregistration available below as well as on AsPredicted.org: https://aspredicted.org/aj9rf.pdf For a better overview, this project is split into 4 components: DoorwayExperiment with the experimental code, ExperimentalData and Analysis containing everything from the raw data to the finished plots, and Thesis containing the files to create the complete PDF document from scratch. Time frame for the complete project: 01.11.2023 - 02.05.2024