Murphy Gillian, Greene Ciara M
School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork Cork, Ireland.
School of Psychology, University College Dublin Dublin, Ireland.
Front Psychol. 2016 Aug 30;7:1322. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01322. eCollection 2016.
Load Theory (Lavie, 1995, 2005) states that the level of perceptual load in a task (i.e., the amount of information involved in processing task-relevant stimuli) determines the efficiency of selective attention. There is evidence that perceptual load affects distractor processing, with increased inattentional blindness under high load. Given that high load can result in individuals failing to report seeing obvious objects, it is conceivable that load may also impair memory for the scene. The current study is the first to assess the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory. Across three experiments (two video-based and one in a driving simulator), the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory was assessed. The results showed that eyewitnesses were less accurate under high load, in particular for peripheral details. For example, memory for the central character in the video was not affected by load but memory for a witness who passed by the window at the edge of the scene was significantly worse under high load. High load memories were also more open to suggestion, showing increased susceptibility to leading questions. High visual perceptual load also affected recall for auditory information, illustrating a possible cross-modal perceptual load effect on memory accuracy. These results have implications for eyewitness memory researchers and forensic professionals.
负载理论（拉维，1995年、2005年）指出，一项任务中的知觉负载水平（即处理与任务相关刺激时所涉及的信息量）决定了选择性注意的效率。有证据表明，知觉负载会影响对干扰物的处理，在高负载情况下无意视盲会增加。鉴于高负载可能导致个体无法报告看到明显的物体，可以想象负载也可能损害对场景的记忆。当前的研究首次评估了知觉负载对目击者记忆的影响。在三项实验中（两项基于视频，一项在驾驶模拟器中），评估了知觉负载对目击者记忆的影响。结果表明，目击者在高负载情况下的准确性较低，尤其是对于周边细节。例如，视频中中心人物的记忆不受负载影响，但对于在场景边缘窗边经过的一名目击者的记忆在高负载情况下明显更差。高负载记忆也更容易受到暗示，对引导性问题的易感性增加。高视觉知觉负载还影响对听觉信息的回忆，说明了对记忆准确性可能存在的跨模态知觉负载效应。这些结果对目击者记忆研究人员和法医专业人员具有启示意义。
