Perceptual and memory capabilities of witnesses to anomalous visual phenomena

The perceptual and memory capabilities of witnesses to anomalous visual phenomena (AVP) were examined in four experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 tested witnessesââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ abilities to access explicit and implicit memory, Experiment 3 explored witnessesââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ abilities to discriminate between genuine and abstract objects, and Experiment 4 examined witnessesââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ propensity to misidentify fragmented objects. No differences were found between witnesses and non-witnesses on any task. Nevertheless, a number of medium-and large-sized effects emerged. Together, these suggested that had power been greater, witnesses would have been shown to (1) require less time than non-witnesses to recall specific memories, (2) be more likely to identify abstract objects as legitimate, (3) require fewer presentations to identify fragmented and ambiguous objects and (4) be more likely to misidentify these same objects. Some evidence was also produced to suggest witnesses may actually outperform non-witnesses on the implicit memory task. Overall, the findings provide weak support for the involvement of perceptual and memory variables in the perception of AVP.