The role of first person perspective and vivid imagery in memory for written narratives

ABSTRACT

The use of visualisation techniques in teaching has enabled students to improve their memory and comprehension of written narratives. Psychological research reveals how various factors can influence visualisation and learning, including; adopting a character’s perspective; constructing self-related images; multi-sensory text representing episodic events; and imagery ability. These factors were explored using narratives that represented real events, which contained subjective and objective information. University students (age range 18–25 years) recalled the narratives in a first person, third person and neutral perspective. In the first person perspective, information was connected to their sense of ‘self’, which improved memory. Additionally, the first person perspective improved memory for subjective and objective information for high imagery ability individuals and subjective information for low imagery ability individuals. Overall, the findings suggest that visualisation, first person perspective and narratives representing real experiences improve memory and comprehension. Implications for practice are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• First person perspective
• visualisation
• mental imagery
• written narratives
• recall