The purpose of the present research is to further explore the relationship between social cues and memory. In particular, the influence of eye gaze on memory was examined. This is of interest because previous work has established a link between gaze cues and attention. Here, we take this a step further and examine whether memory is also impacted by eye gaze. Participants remembered word lists presented on a computer monitor. These words were presented against a background of a human face looking away from them, looking at them, or looking at them with closed eyes. By doing so, we tested how memory was affected by its embedding in a social context. The results indicate that direct gaze increases memory performance over averted gaze when tested through a recognition test. For recall, memory instead was best for words presented on a face with closed eyes. Thus, social context differentially affects memory for different depths of processing. These results are important because they further the literature for the effects of social cues on memory processing.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Psychology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_8184
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (ii, 22 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
M.A.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Cognitive neuroscience
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Cognition
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Memory
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Dillon Miller
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Camden Graduate School Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10005600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.