Real-world implications of aphantasia: episodic recall of eyewitnesses with aphantasia is less complete but no less accurate than typical imagers

Coral J Dando; Zacharia Nahouli; Alison Hart; Zoe Pounder

doi:10.1098/rsos.231007

Real-world implications of aphantasia: episodic recall of eyewitnesses with aphantasia is less complete but no less accurate than typical imagers

R Soc Open Sci. 2023 Oct 25;10(10):231007. doi: 10.1098/rsos.231007. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

Coral J Dando¹, Zacharia Nahouli², Alison Hart¹, Zoe Pounder³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, School of Social Science, University of Westminster, London W1B 2HW, UK.
² School of Psychology, University of Derby, Derby, UK.
³ Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Abstract

Individuals with aphantasia report an inability to voluntarily visually image and reduced episodic memory, yet episodic accounts provided by witnesses and victims are fundamental for criminal justice. Using the mock-witness paradigm, we investigated eyewitness memory of individuals with aphantasia versus typical imagers. Participants viewed a mock crime and 48 hours later were interviewed about the event, randomly allocated to one of three conditions. Two interview conditions included techniques designed to support episodic retrieval mode, namely (i) Mental Reinstatement of Context (MRC) and (ii) Sketch Reinstatement of Context (Sketch-RC). A third Control condition did not include retrieval support. Aphantasic mock-eyewitnesses recalled 30% less correct information and accounts were less complete, but they made no more errors and were as accurate as typical imagers. Interaction effects revealed reduced correct recall and less complete accounts for aphantasic participants in MRC interviews versus Sketch-RC and Control. Aphantaisic participants in the Control outperformed those in both the Sketch-RC and MRC, although Sketch-RC improved completeness by 15% versus MRC. Our pattern of results indicates reduced mental imagery ability might be compensated for by alternative self-initiated cognitive strategies. Findings offer novel insights into episodic recall performance in information gathering interviews when ability to voluntarily visualize is impoverished.

Keywords: aphantasia; episodic recall; eyewitness memory; investigative interviews; reinstatement of context.