Numerous studies have explored the effects of virtual reality (VR) on adults’ cognition. Little is known, however, of these effects in children. The aim of this study was to explore, in both children and adults, the respective roles of the specific factors of VR, such as immersion, sense of presence and emotion, on memory performance. To do so, we used a head-mounted display to present a VR experience in which we manipulated immersion by varying 3D asset quality (High and Low) and emotion by presenting negative, neutral and positive stimuli. 48 adults (M_age = 20.65) and 40 children (M_age = 11.63) were both divided into two experimental groups (High vs. Low 3D model quality). Valence, arousal, and sense of presence were self-assessed by means of questionnaires, while memory of the presented stimuli was assessed using a free recall task. We also performed physiological measurements to provide objective support for our data. Results showed that memory performance was better for emotional than for neutral stimuli regardless of age group, even though children seemed to avoid looking at negative stimuli compared to neutral ones. Memory was predicted by arousal and presence in adults and only by arousal in children. Memory was not impaired by using poor image quality when highly arousing content was displayed. This study revealed that, contrary to adults, the use of poor image quality did not protect children from strong emotional experiences in VR. The roles of familiarity and arousal are discussed to help explain these results.

大量研究探讨了虚拟现实 (VR) 对成人认知的影响。然而，对儿童的这些影响知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨儿童和成人的 VR 特定因素（如沉浸感、临场感和情绪）对记忆表现的各自作用。为此，我们使用头戴式显示器来呈现 VR 体验，在该体验中，我们通过改变 3D 资产质量（高和低）来操纵沉浸感，并通过呈现负面、中性和正面刺激来控制情绪。48 名成人（M_年龄 = 20.65）和 40 名儿童（M_年龄 = 11.63）都分为两个实验组（高与低 3D 模型质量）。效价、唤醒和存在感通过问卷进行自我评估，而对所呈现刺激的记忆则使用自由回忆任务进行评估。我们还进行了生理测量，为我们的数据提供客观支持。结果表明，无论年龄组如何，情绪的记忆表现都优于中性刺激，尽管与中性刺激相比，儿童似乎避免看负面刺激。记忆是通过成人的觉醒和存在来预测的，而仅通过儿童的觉醒来预测。当显示高度刺激的内容时，使用较差的图像质量不会损害记忆力。这项研究表明，与成年人相反，使用劣质图像并不能保护儿童免受 VR 中强烈的情感体验。讨论了熟悉度和唤醒的作用以帮助解释这些结果。