Third-person perspectives in photographs influence visual and spatial perspectives during subsequent memory retrieval

ABSTRACT

Reviewing photographs of the past influences our memories, but there is minimal research examining the influence of the viewpoint during photographic review of memories. In the current study, we examined how reviewing photographs from first-person versus third-person perspectives influences visual and spatial perspective in subsequent memories. Participants formed memories for mini-events performed in the lab, reviewed photographs of these events one week later from first-person and third-person perspectives, and then two days later memories for these events were tested against no photographic review. We found that third-person photographs increased observer-like perspectives during subsequent remembering, suggesting that photographic review of novel viewpoints changes the location from which the rememberer views the past event. Reviewing third-person photographs also reduced the accuracy of the spatial location of objects, indicating that photographic review can also update spatial perspective. In sum, these findings show that the viewpoint of photographs can powerfully influence memories.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual perspective
• episodic memory
• mental imagery
• photographs
• subsequent memory

Acknowledgements

We thank Bryton Wong and Jenaya Therriault for assistance with coding the spatial memory task.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A more lenient coding approach showed similar effects, thus only analyses using the strict criteria are reported in detail here.

2 Logically, memories classified as own eyes do not have remembered viewpoints at multiple spatial locations. We did not examine memories classified in the other perspective category given the low number of memories.

3 Although it is possible there were potential cross-over effects that mitigated the within subject manipulation of the presence or absence of the self in third-person photographs.