Repetitive Saccadic Eye Movements Enhance Eyewitness Recall in Specific-Open Questioning
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Repetitive Saccadic Eye Movements Enhance Eyewitness Recall in Specific-Open Questioning Anna M. Kelley 1
&
Keith B. Lyle 1
Received: 17 June 2020 / Accepted: 10 November 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Several studies have shown that executing a series of visually guided saccades immediately before taking a memory test can help people recall details of mock crimes. The nature of the memory test has varied across studies, reflecting the multiple forms of questioning in investigative interviewing. Here, we examined mnemonic effects of saccade execution when people answered two important question types: specific-open, which called for open-ended descriptions of multifaceted event elements (e.g., a person’s appearance), and specific-closed, which probed memory for isolated features (e.g., the color of a particular article of clothing). Saccade execution enhanced recall in response to open questions, with non-trivial effect sizes, but had no effect when questions were closed. As in some prior research, enhancement was moderated by handedness: only individuals who reported highly consistent hand preference benefited from saccade execution. Although inconsistent individuals did not benefit from saccade execution, they exhibited several natural memory advantages when tested with specific-open questions. The theory that saccade execution potentiates the contribution of top-down attention to memory retrieval is discussed. These findings provide new insights regarding the circumstances under which saccade execution might be used to enhance eyewitness recall in real-world settings. Keywords Eyewitness memory . Handedness consistency . Investigative interviewing . Memory enhancement . Saccade-induced retrieval enhancement
Eyewitness recall is indispensable in the aftermath of criminal events. It is often through memory reports alone that investigators come to know about key persons and events. Research on a phenomenon known as saccade-induced retrieval enhancement (SIRE) suggests that it may be possible to help eyewitnesses recall events by having them execute a series of visually guided saccades immediately before questioning (Lyle 2018; Lyle and Jacobs 2010; Parker et al. 2008a). In investigative interviewing, questioning can take many forms. We were especially concerned in the present research with questions that prompt witnesses to provide open-ended descriptions of specific event elements (e.g., “Can you describe
Results of this research were presented in part at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science (Washington, D.C., May, 2019). * Anna M. Kelley [email protected] 1
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, 2301 S. 3rd St., Louisville, KY 40292, USA
the perpetrator’s appearance?”). Before delving into our specific aims, however, we provide a brief overview of SIRE, describing how the phenomenon is studied, summarizing key findings and theory, and introducing an important potential moderator.
SIRE: a Brief
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