  Although Virtual Reality (VR) has undoubtedly improved human interaction with
3D data, users still face difficulties retaining important details of complex
digital objects in preparation for physical tasks. To address this issue, we
evaluated the potential of visuohaptic integration to improve the memorability
of virtual objects in immersive visualizations. In a user study (N=20),
participants performed a delayed match-to-sample task where they memorized
stimuli of visual, haptic, or visuohaptic encoding conditions. We assessed
performance differences between the conditions through error rates and response
time. We found that visuohaptic encoding significantly improved memorization
accuracy compared to unimodal visual and haptic conditions. Our analysis
indicates that integrating haptics into immersive visualizations enhances the
memorability of digital objects. We discuss its implications for the optimal
encoding design in VR applications that assist professionals who need to
memorize and recall virtual objects in their daily work.
