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Multi-sensory Stimuli
As well as in perception, memory
encoding and retrieving can also vary
across the senses. The sense of smell is
known to be directly connected to the
limbic system, including the amygdala and
the hippocampus, the regions related to
emotion, memory and associative learning
(Herz, 2016). This is why smells are
considered powerful triggers to retrieve
stored episodic memories. Visual
information, especially pictures, are also
known for how they can be easily stored
The role of the physical environment on memorization of
experiences: perspectives and possibilities
ANFA 2021 SYMPOSIUM
INTRODUCTION
This paper is concerned with the links between episodic memory
and the physical environment. To what extent could encoding of
memories be affected by the surroundings of the space where
they were first experienced? Would we have stronger memories
about our experiences depending on where we were when we
first experienced them? "
The internet and online video conferencing allowed people to
engage in a variety of activities from one same place. This
situation was intensified recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic
and the increase of home office and home schooling. If
environments are an important element to support episodic
memory encoding, perhaps some of the spaces we have been
designing are not supporting memorization of experiences as
they could be, especially in this new context of using only the
home – or a room at home – to engage in so many different
activities. "
Although there is a significant amount of research about spatial
memory, the effects of the physical environment on memory
encoding about events and personal experiences have not been
very explored.$ The investigation of such relationship, though,
can lead to better understanding about how the physical
environment can affect its users. Additionally,$ it can help
architects to think of new strategies in order to design spaces
that support memorization of events lived in them.$ "
The goal of this paper is to present a holistic framework about
the possible connections between spaces and episodic
memories of personal events. It also aims to point spatial
attributes that architects could consider to create spaces that
support memorization."
EPISODIC MEMORY
The term episodic memory was first introduced by Endel Tulving in
1972. He created the term to distinguish between remembering
factual information (semantic memory) and remembering events from
the past (episodic memory). Thus, “episodic memories are
consciously recollected memories related to personally experienced
events” (Ploran & Wheeler, 2009, p.1)."
Although recent studies have been showing the interconnections
between both kinds of memory (Greenberg & Verfaellie, 2010),
episodic memories are a category of long-term memory that is
connected to a particular phenomenological experience that allows a
person to mentally travel back in time to relive a past episode and to
be aware of the temporal dimension of their own existence (Martin-
Ordas & Atance, 2019). They can not only affect performance in day-
to-day tasks, such as remembering people met and activities
engaged in, but also the sense of self (Guerine et al., 2018).
Importantly, recent studies have pointed three main elements that
compose episodic memories: recollection about what, where, and
when something happened (Martin-Ordas & Atance, 2019). "
MEMORY, ENVIRONMENT AND BRAIN
EPISODIC MEMORY AND SPATIAL ATTRIBUTES
WHAT + WHERE + WHEN
Episodic memories are not
disassociated from the place where
they took place.! Consequently,
architecture, with its affordances and
multi-sensory stimuli, might play a
key role on episodic memorization.
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT POINTS TO LINKS BETWEEN MEMORY AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Lighting
Studies point to a relationship between the environment’s
lighting and attention levels and memory retention (Huiberts et
al., 2015; Vandewalle et al., 2009). Natural light in classrooms
was found to enhance attention levels and learning (Heschong
et al., 2002; Shishegar &$ Boubekri, 2016) and more windows
in the classroom was associated with faster rate of
improvement on student’s performance (Heschong et al.,
2002). Research also show that light (especially blue light)
might affect not only attention and alertness, but also memory
consolidation (Shan et al., 2015; Zhu et al., 2018).
Spatial Arrangement and The
Encoding Specificity Principle
The work of Radvansky explores the
links between spatial arrangement
and memory (Radvansky &
Copeland, 2006; Radvansky et al.,
2010). He found that when people
pass through a doorway to move
from one location to another, they
forget more information than if they
do not make such a shift, which he
called the location-updating effect
CONCLUSION
“We are who we are in good measure because of what we have
learned and what we remember” and$“memory is the glue that
holds our mental life together” (Kandel, 2020, pg. 199). Thus,
understanding how spaces can affect memorization can help
architects and designers to create spaces that improve
performance, mental life and the sense of self."
Although there are still many gaps to fill in order to understand
the complexity of this relationship between episodic memories
and architecture, this paper aimed to contribute to the
discussions by pointing some spatial attributes that have already
been studied and linked to memorization. Those can be
important in order to help architects and designers to adopt
science informed solutions that could support memory encoding.
Perceptual Fluency and Cognitive Restoration
Recent studies suggest that spaces can affect cognitive restoration. Sensory
processes, particularly vision, draw on limited mental resources (Shenhav et
al., 2017). Once these are depleted, cognition is impaired (Kato et al., 2009).
However, some environments can help save and restore resources, leading to
“cognitive restoration”, which is the capacity to replenish cognitive resources
depleted by everyday activities (Kaplan, 1995) and to reduce stress levels
(Ulrich, 1983). The two main environmental elements associated with cognitive
restoration are nature (Kaplan, 1995) and fractals (Taylor, 2006; Taylor et al.,
2011). Recent studies define such elements as “perceptually fluent”. This
fluency is defined as the subjective experience of the ease with which a certain
stimulus organization is processed (Joye et al., 2016). For instance, research
has showed an increase in the average working memory of school children that
spent more time in contact with nature (Dadvand et al., 2015) and an
improvement in directed-attention abilities (Berman et al., 2008), which has a
key role in memory encoding (Muzzio et al., 2009).
Navigation and memory
One of the oldest
memorization techniques is
known as the Roman
Room, or Method of Loci,
created by the Greek and
Romans. It involves
visualizations of familiar
spatial environments in
order to enhance the recall
of information. It consists in
mentalizing a spatial layout,
like a building or street, and
then memorizing a set of
items by associating them
with different locations in
the mentalized layout.
Retrieval of items is
achieved by 'walking'
through the loci. O’Keefe &
Nadel (1978) pointed that
the hippocampus, involved
with long-term memory, can
also form some kind of map
in which all the elements
are interrelated and
simultaneously available.
Hippocampus and Parahippocampal
Gyrus
The hippocampus plays a key role in
long-term memory processing (Squire &
Zola-Morgan, 1991; Voss et al., 2017),
as well as in spatial cognition
(Eichenbaum, 2017; Hartley et al.,
2013; O’Keefe & Nadel, 1978). Place
cells – which support recognition of
spaces - are located in the
hippocampus (O’Keefe & Dostrovsky,
1971) and studies suggest that they are
directly connected to episodic memory,
providing the spatial context for
memories by recalling the neural
representation of the environments in
which they occurred (Smith & Mizumori,
2006; Tulving & Markowitsch, 1998). "
The parahipocampal gyrus, a cortical
region that surrounds the
hippocampus, is also known to be
involved with memory encoding and
retrieval (Aminoff et al., 2013);
visuospatial processing relating to
scene perception (Ekstrom et al., 2003;
Epstein et al., 1999; Park, & Chun,
2009) and spatial representation
(Mullally & Maguire, 2011). "
Enrichment and memory
Studies conducted with
adult rodents have shown
that enriched environments,
defined as a combination of
complex inanimate and
social stimulation
(Rosenzweig et al., 1978),
can stimulate synaptic
plasticity (Leal-Galicia et al.,
2008) and neurogenesis
$(Kempermann et al., 1997)
in various brain regions,
including the hippocampus
(Ohline & Abraham, 2019).
Notably, studies also point
that enriched environments
improve learning and
memory in young adult rats
(Hullinger et al., 2015). In
addition, long-term
exposition to environmental
enrichment since youth
might prevent memory
decline and even increase
synaptic plasticity markers
during aging (Leal-Galicia et
al., 2008).
Context and coherence
According to the Contextual
Binding Theory (Yonelinas et al.,
2019), the hippocampus binds
together item and context
information. A steady context
during encoding could enhance
the chances of remembering,
whilst forgetting could result from
interferences from other
memories that share similar
content or context (Yonelinas et
al., 2019). Aligned with this, other
studies also point to the possible
role of the hippocampus and
surrounding areas in mediating
context and memory associations
(Bar & Aminoff, 2003; Bar et al.,
2008). Thus, the coherence
between spatial context and
activity/event could be another
relevant element to support
Andréa de Paiva, MA"
www.neuroau.com/e"
@neuro_au"
andrea@neuroau.com
Affordances and Embodiment
The embodied approach to cognition suggests that the human body, particularly the
perceptual and motor systems, play an important role in cognition (Damasio, 2005; Mada &
Singhal, 2012). For instance, Dijkstra et al. (2007) found that congruent body posture might
facilitate retrieval of autobiographical memories. They found that adopting a similar body
posture to one that was assumed during a given past experience facilitated memory retrieval
of that very same experience – compared to when subjects adopted incongruent postures.
Not only that, but walking has been shown to enhance learning and memory in humans and
other animals (van Praag, 2009) and daily physical exercise has been shown to reduce the
cognitive decline associated with aging (Buchman et al.,$2012).
in the human mind if compared to words (Grady et al., 1998).
Another important point to make is that multi-sensory cues can
enhance retention of information (Broadbent et al., 2019);
working memory (Quak et al., 2015); and memory of virtual
environments (Dinh et al., 1999). However, it is worth mentioning
that studies on cross-modal perception show that coherence
between different sensory modalities is important to facilitate
perception and that incoherent cross-modal stimuli could lead
to interferences and, thus, hinder perception and memorization.
Spatial attributes:
LAYOUT
FURNITURE DESIGN
ENVIRONMENTAL CLUES
SAFETY
DISTANCES
VISIBILITY & INTEGRATION
WAYFINDING
STAIRS DESIGN
Spatial attributes:
WINDOWS & ZENITH
OUTDOOR AREAS
ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING
WAYFINDING
LAYOUT
INTEGRATION
Spatial attributes:
SYMBOLS
LAYOUT
FURNITURE
COLORS
MATERIALS & TEXTURES
ODORS
SOUNDS
memorization. In the current context that
many people are using a few spaces to
shelter the many different activities in which
they engage, this issue becomes even more
critical and deserves further investigation. "
Spatial attributes:
LAYOUT
VISIBILITY
INTEGRATION
WALLS
(Radvansky et al., 2010). His findings are aligned with the
Encoding Specificity Principle, which indicates that
matching the encoding context at recall can assist in the
retrieval of episodic memories (Tulving & Thomson, 1973).
Thus, individuals tend to recall more information when in the
same environment as they originally encoded them (Brown &
Craik, 2000; Godden & Baddeley, 1975).
Spatial attributes:
MATERIALS
TEXTURES
SOUNDS
ODORS
NATURE & BIOPHILIC DESIGN
LOCATION OF KITCHEN
Spatial attributes:
NATURE & BIOPHILIC DESIGN
FRACTALS SHAPES & PATTERNS
COMPLEXITY
AMOUNT OF VISUAL INFORMATION
COLORS
PROSPECT & REFUGE
SILENCE
VISUAL PRIVACY
