Elsevier

Consciousness and Cognition

Volume 20, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 568-577
Consciousness and Cognition

Remembering from any angle: The flexibility of visual perspective during retrieval

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2010.10.013Get rights and content

Abstract

When recalling autobiographical memories, individuals often experience visual images associated with the event. These images can be constructed from two different perspectives: first person, in which the event is visualized from the viewpoint experienced at encoding, or third person, in which the event is visualized from an external vantage point. Using a novel technique to measure visual perspective, we examined where the external vantage point is situated in third-person images. Individuals in two studies were asked to recall either 10 or 15 events from their lives and describe the perspectives they experienced. Wide variation in spatial locations was observed within third-person perspectives, with the location of these perspectives relating to the event being recalled. Results suggest remembering from an external viewpoint may be more common than previous studies have demonstrated.

Section snippets

Study 1

A novel technique was used in which participants were asked to describe the perspective accompanying each memory rather than use a Likert-type scale, as in prior studies. Ten memories were cued with events adapted from Nigro and Neisser (1983). In addition, five memories were cued with time periods, different aspects of which are reported here and elsewhere (Rice & Rubin, 2009).

Study 2

Results from Study 1 demonstrated that individuals can construct third-person perspectives from a range of locations rather than being limited to a few locations and provided preliminary evidence that the event being remembered influences third-person perspective locations. To show that these results were reliable and the differences in proportions across events were not due to random noise, we replicated the study. It was also important to replicate the results given the novelty of the

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dorthe Berntsen, Rachel Cohen, Kathleen McDermott, Roddy Roediger, Karl Szpunar, Cindy Wooldridge, and members of the Roediger lab reading group for helpful comments, the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant Number R01 MH066079) for funding, and Karen Burns, Ricky Green, Tiffany Udoh, and other research assistants for entering and coding data. Portions of this paper were presented at the Psychonomics Conference in Houston, TX and the American Psychological Society

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