The effects of eye-closure and "ear-closure" on recall of visual and auditory aspects of a criminal event

Annelies Vredeveldt; Alan Baddeley; Graham James Hitch

doi:10.5964/ejop.v8i2.472

The effects of eye-closure and "ear-closure" on recall of visual and auditory aspects of a criminal event

Annelies Vredeveldt, Alan Baddeley, Graham James Hitch

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Previous research has shown that closing the eyes can facilitate recall of semantic and episodic information. Here, two experiments are
presented which investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the eye-closure effect and its auditory equivalent, the “ear-closure” effect. In
Experiment 1, participants viewed a violent videotaped event and were subsequently interviewed about the event with eyes open or eyes
closed. Eye-closure was found to have modality-general benefits on coarse-grain correct responses, but modality-specific effects on fine-grain
correct recall and incorrect recall (increasing the former and decreasing the latter). In Experiment 2, participants viewed the same event and
were subsequently interviewed about it, either in quiet conditions or while hearing irrelevant speech. Contrary to expectations, irrelevant
speech did not significantly impair recall performance. This null finding might be explained by the absence of social interaction during the
interview in Experiment 2. In conof the findings are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	284-299
Journal	Europe's Journal of Psychology
Volume	8
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v8i2.472
Publication status	Published - 2012

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10.5964/ejop.v8i2.472

Cite this

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title = "The effects of eye-closure and {"}ear-closure{"} on recall of visual and auditory aspects of a criminal event",

abstract = "Previous research has shown that closing the eyes can facilitate recall of semantic and episodic information. Here, two experiments are presented which investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the eye-closure effect and its auditory equivalent, the “ear-closure” effect. In Experiment 1, participants viewed a violent videotaped event and were subsequently interviewed about the event with eyes open or eyes closed. Eye-closure was found to have modality-general benefits on coarse-grain correct responses, but modality-specific effects on fine-grain correct recall and incorrect recall (increasing the former and decreasing the latter). In Experiment 2, participants viewed the same event and were subsequently interviewed about it, either in quiet conditions or while hearing irrelevant speech. Contrary to expectations, irrelevant speech did not significantly impair recall performance. This null finding might be explained by the absence of social interaction during the interview in Experiment 2. In conof the findings are discussed. ",

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