Through a series of experiments in virtual reality, a total of 74 volunteers were asked to move through computer-generated 3D rooms, trying to remember certain objects from previous rooms – such as a blue cone or a yellow cross – as they went.
“At first we couldn’t find the doorway effect at all so we thought maybe people were too good – they were remembering everything,” says psychologist Oliver Baumann, from Bond University in Australia.
“So then we made it more difficult and got them to do backward counting tasks while moving around to load up their working memory.”
“Forgetting did now occur, telling us that overloading the participants’ memory made them more susceptible to the effect of the doorway. In other words, the doorway effect only occurs if we are cognitively in a vulnerable state.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member