Shifting visual perspective during memory retrieval reduces the accuracy of subsequent memories

ABSTRACT

Memories for events can be retrieved from visual perspectives that were never experienced, reflecting the dynamic and reconstructive nature of memories. Characteristics of memories can be altered when shifting from an own eyes perspective, the way most events are initially experienced, to an observer perspective, in which one sees oneself in the memory. Moreover, recent evidence has linked these retrieval-related effects of visual perspective to subsequent changes in memories. Here we examine how shifting visual perspective influences the accuracy of subsequent memories for complex events encoded in the lab. Participants performed a series of mini-events that were experienced from their own eyes, and were later asked to retrieve memories for these events while maintaining the own eyes perspective or shifting to an alternative observer perspective. We then examined how shifting perspective during retrieval modified memories by influencing the accuracy of recall on a final memory test. Across two experiments, we found that shifting visual perspective reduced the accuracy of subsequent memories and that reductions in vividness when shifting visual perspective during retrieval predicted these changes in the accuracy of memories. Our findings suggest that shifting from an own eyes to an observer perspective influences the accuracy of long-term memories.

KEYWORDS:

• Memory for events
• episodic memory
• visual perspective
• accuracy
• updating
• reactivation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Peggy L. St. Jacques http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0935-4588

Notes

1. Adopting a more liberal approach showed similar effects to the conservative one, thus only analyses using the conservative approach are reported in detail here.

2. A separate One-Way ANOVA also revealed that there was no difference in the size of the difference in memory accuracy between the non-shifted and shifted conditions.