Survival processing advantage demonstrated with virtual reality-based survival environment: A promising tool for survival processing research

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted to demonstrate the survival processing advantage (SPA) as an evolutionary-oriented memory effect. But few studies were conducted to demonstrate this effect in real-life or simulated survival environments. This study tested whether the SPA could be replicated in a survival virtual reality environment (VRE). In Experiment 1, the SPAs were measured in VREs (survival grasslands, survival battlefield, nonsurvival moving) in which Experiment 1A used the standard long instructions and Experiment 1B used the modified short instructions. In Experiment 2, the SPAs were measured again with the scenarios corresponding to the VREs used in Experiment 1A. All experiments demonstrated typical SPAs, suggesting that the survival VRE is a reliable tool in designing and delivering a survival situation. The potential problems of applying survival VRE to survival processing research are discussed at the end.