title: Effects of handedness & saccadic bilateral eye movements on the specificity of past autobiographical memory & episodic future thinking.
abstract: The present research investigated the effects of personal handedness and saccadic eye movements on the specificity of past autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking. Handedness and saccadic eye movements have been hypothesised to share a common functional basis in that both influence cognition through hemispheric interaction. The technique used to elicit autobiographical memory and episodic future thought involved a cued sentence completion procedure that allowed for the production of memories spanning the highly specific to the very general. Experiment 1 found that mixed-handed (vs. right handed) individuals generated more specific past autobiographical memories, but equivalent numbers of specific future predictions. Experiment 2 demonstrated that following 30s of bilateral (horizontal) saccades, more specific cognitions about both the past and future were generated. These findings extend previous research by showing that more distinct and episodic-like information pertaining to the self can be elicited by either mixed-handedness or eye movements. The results are discussed in relation to hemispheric interaction and top-down influences in the control of memory retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Psychology, 53 Bonsall Street, Manchester M15 6GX, United Kingdom. Electronic address: a.parker@mmu.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Psychology, 53 Bonsall Street, Manchester M15 6GX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parkin
authors.affiliation: Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Psychology, 53 Bonsall Street, Manchester M15 6GX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dagnall
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Autobiographical memory; Bilateral eye movements; Episodic future thinking; Handedness; SIRE effects; Specificity