Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Eye Movement Monitoring of Memory
Published on: August 15, 2010
Memory for a staged criminal event witnessed live and on video
Cecilie Ihlebaek1, Tonja Løve, Dag Erik Eilertsen
1University of Oslo, Norway.
Abstract:
Memory for a staged robbery was tested in two groups of participants witnessing the event either live (n = 62) or on video (n = 64). Immediately after the event participants filled out a questionnaire probing memory with emphasis on the timing of the event and robber characteristics. The results showed that participants who watched a video recording of the event reported more details and with a higher accuracy than participants who were present on the scene, but the pattern of memory errors were similar in the two conditions. It is concluded that laboratory experiments may overestimate the memory of eyewitnesses but are otherwise able to simulate essential aspects of memory performance in naturalistic contexts.
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