How can we help witnesses to remember more? It's an eyes open and shut case

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,  Jan 2008  by Wickramasekera, Ian II

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Perfect, T.J., Wagstaff, G.F., Moore, D. Andrews, B. Cleveland, V., Newcombe, S., Brisbane, K.A., & Brown, L. (2007). How can we help witnesses to remember more? It's an eyes open and shut case. Law and Human Behavior, 55(4), 486-496. This is an interesting article which reports on the data of 5 experiments designed to ascertain whether directing someone to close their eyes could increase their success in memory retrieval. The subjects in the first experiment were directed to watch a video and later to answer questions based upon their recall of the material. The subjects were either directed to close their eyes before answering the questions or given no instructions at all. The participants who closed their eyes did demonstrate some increased accuracy on a cued recall test as well as no increase in incorrect responses. The authors also report on similar findings in the other experiments which examined how varying the experimental conditions might change the results by varying the test format (cued recall vs. free recall), information modality (auditory vs. visual), and study material (live vs. video). All 5 experiments produced a similar pattern of results that suggested that directed eye closure produced an increase in memory retrieval without an increase in inaccurate memory retrieval. This study appears to be an interesting new look at the whole issue of memory and hypnosis since almost all hypnotic inductions to remember a previous event begin with directions to close one's eyes. The authors suggest that this may in and of itself increase the patients memory retrieval processes.

The most interesting and perhaps somewhat surprising finding of this study (besides the eye closure issue) involves the authors' evidence that eye closure in and of itself did not result in any increase in inaccurate retrieval even in the free recall condition. A number of studies such as a classic study by Laurence & Perry (1983) have documented that hypnotic interrogations of memory can result in memory distortions such as a type of imaginativeconfabulation. One might have expected an increase in memory inaccuracies in the experiments and especially the free recall condition given the authors suggestion that their eye closure recall has some relationship to hypnotic memory retrieval. It is a fascinating issue and hopefully we will see some further development of this experimental paradigm addressing the very valid sociocognitive critiques that previously were brought up about the necessity of hypnotic inductions in establishing hypnotic behaviors for other hypnotic phenomena. Further work in this area may well shed some new light on the issue of memory of hypnosis especially if the authors can continue demonstrating increases in memory retrieval using eye closure procedures without a concurrent increase in inaccurate memory retrieval.

Reference

Laurence, J. R., & Perry, C. (1983). Hypnotically created memory among highly hypnotizable subjects. Science, 222 (4623), 523-524.

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