<p>Whether exposure to a novel environment in virtual reality improves subsequent verbal memory or not is still debated. The present study aims to replicate positive findings by assessing whether exploration of a novel virtual environment leads to better memory recall in a task performed afterwards than exploration of a familiar environment and whether this effect is related to the exploratory behavior. Fifty-five participants completed three sessions that took place on different days. The first session consisted of assessing the baseline memory performance. Participants encoded a list of 40 words and then freely recalled as many words as possible during two memory tests—one conducted immediately after a 30-second distraction task, and the other after a 24-hour delay. In the second session, participants familiarized themselves with a virtual environment and then explored either the familiar or a novel environment before performing a similar memory task. In the third, participants explored the familiar or novel virtual environment (counterbalancing design) before performing the memory task. Our results failed to find a positive impact of exploring a novel environment (<i>spatial novelty</i>) on memory. Rather, we observed that immediate recall is higher after exploring a virtual environment (regardless of it being novel or familiar) compared to the baseline performance. The experience of virtual reality might induce another type of novelty, called <i>distinct novelty</i>, which could impact memory too. Furthermore, our results, derived from a sample of individuals aged 18 to 30, suggest a negative correlation between age and the novelty effect, highlighting the need for further research into individual differences. Surprisingly, delayed recall after 24&#xa0;h was higher at baseline than after exploring a virtual environment.</p>