I found this interesting – prior night sleep quality affects the recollection of details from events.
This study assessed the ability of people to recall central and peripheral details about a crime that they witnessed (via video).
Sleep length and sleepiness was assessed via self-report questionnaire (so, not the most accurate for sleep…)
They found that:
· As eyewitness sleep quality decreased and their sleepiness increased, their ability to accurately recollect peripheral details from the crime decreased
· Prior research on prior sleep has found mixed results, with some finding poor sleep quality harms episodic memory and others finding no effect
· This study found that sleep quality on the prior evening to witnessing a crime predicted how accurately they remembered the peripheral details
· Sleep quality didn’t predict the quantity of peripheral details correctly recalled, or the quantity/accuracy of central details
They ponder why only peripheral details were affected and not central. This is likely due to some factors relating to participant attention being drawn to the central features.
Also, they argue that “Given that accuracy, but not quantity, was predicted by these measures, it suggests that participants were inclined to answer peripheral detail questions regardless of their recent sleep quality or sleepiness, but their ability to accurately remember these details was compromised when they had experienced poor quality sleep and were sleepy”.
That is, people had few barriers in providing peripheral details from memory, despite the memories being inaccurate.
Ref: Thorley, C. (2013). The effects of recent sleep duration, sleep quality, and current sleepiness on eyewitness memory. Applied cognitive psychology, 27(5), 690-695.
Study link: https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.2938
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