The effects of eye-closure, focused mediation and context reinstatement on eyewitness memory.

Objective: To investigate the effects of eye-closure, focused meditation and context reinstatement on eyewitness recall and facial recognition. Method: Participants (N = 72) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (eyeclosure only, focused meditation [FM] with eye-closure, focused meditation with eye-closure plus context reinstatement [FM CR] and a control group). All participants watched a short video clip depicting a staged crime and subsequently provided a free recall, followed by a cued recall. Following a 10-minute distracter task participants made an identification from a sequential photo array. Results: For free recall the combined FM CR procedure with eye-closure produced significantly more correct responses than each of the other three conditions, without increasing errors. For cued recall both the FM with eye-closure and the FM CR with eye-closure procedures produced significantly more correct responses than the control condition. FM with eyeclosure did so most effectively, producing significantly less incorrect cued recall responses than the control condition. None of the three techniques had a significant effect on facial recognition accuracy. Conclusion: These simple memory techniques may hold some promise as brief methods for facilitating eyewitness memory.