Out-of-body memory encoding causes third-person perspective at recall
Journal of Cognitive Psychology September 30, 2021 L. Bergouignan, L. Nyberg, H. Ehrsson
Encoding an event during an out-of-body illusion increases the likelihood that it will later be recalled from a third-person perspective. Participants experienced a social interaction under an out-of-body illusion, viewing the event and their own body from an external perspective. In recall sessions approximately one week later, events encoded in the out-of-body condition were significantly less likely to be recalled from a first-person perspective compared to a control condition. The finding suggests that the perspective adopted at encoding, not only reconstructive processes at recall, contributes to whether a memory is recalled from a third-person perspective.