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The director changes the camera’s point of view. First you see one person and then another. The camera shifts to another view of the same scene or from one car to another in a chase. Directors change the point of view both to show different information and for emotional impact. Our memories also have distinct visual perspectives. Sometimes we see the world from our original perspective and other times we see ourselves in our memories. Our memory system plays the role of movie director, changing perspective to provide different information and vary the emotional intensity.
These different memory perspectives have been noticed for a long time. Freud, for example, argued that seeing things from an external perspective meant that the memory must have been altered, changed, and reconstructed. Since you couldn’t have seen yourself originally, the memory is obviously erroneous.
But the investigations of memory point of view didn’t begin until a series of studies by Nigro and Neisser in 1983. They called memories viewed from your original perspective Field Memories because they encompass your visual field of view. Observer memories are when you see yourself in your memory as an outside observer would have seen you.
More importantly, Nigro and Neisser discovered differences between observer and field memories. Older memories are more likely to be seen from an observer point of view, from that outside perspective that includes seeing yourself. Emotion also influences memory point of view. Emotional experiences are more likely to be seen from the observer, outside point of view, than the original field perspective. And seeing memories from the observer point of view decreases the amount of emotion you experience when remembering. Even when people are remembering traumatic events, those who have the observer point of view relive less of the emotional content than people who see the memory from their original, field perspective (McIsaac & Eich, 2004).
Additionally the more self-aware you were during the event; the more likely the memory point of view will be observer. For example when you give an important presentation, the event can be very emotional and you may focus on yourself and how you are performing. Nigro and Neisser found that this is an event that people more often remember from the observer perspective (see also Rice & Rubin, 2011).
Observer and field memories also influence the extent to which you think the remembered event is consistent with your current view of yourself (Libby & Eibach, 2002). Sometimes when we remember something, we think of our behavior as consistent with the way we are now. Consistent memories are more likely to be seen from the original, field point of view. But other times, I can remember my past and realize that I’ve changed—happily I’m not the same person I was in high school. When remembering events in which I seem different than I am now, I am more likely to see myself in the memory, from that outside, observer point of view.
But like a movie director, you aren’t stuck with any particular point of view. Movie directors change camera angles and you can change your memory point of view. If you see a memory from the original field perspective, you can shift the memory to the observer point of view. With memory you are the director and control the point of view, switching between the original field perspective and the external observer perspective (Rice & Rubin, 2009; Robinson & Swanson, 1993).
Movie directors change perspective to let you see and experience different things. They also change perspective to control the emotional experiences of the movie audience. As memory director you can cut to a different visual perspective and see a different point of view. Changing your memory perspective alters the emotional experience. Changing from the original field perspective to an observer point of view typically reduces the amount of emotion a person experiences (Berntsen & Rubin, 2006; Robinson & Swanson, 1993). Interestingly the reverse isn’t true: Shifting from observer to field doesn’t increase the emotional experience. Changing memory perspectives always influences how much you believe you resemble that remembered self. Shifting from the field to observer perspective makes you feel that you have changed from that remembered self (Libby, Eibach, & Gilovich, 2005). So if you want to feel different, like a new person, then start seeing your memories from the observer perspective. Libby and colleagues suggested this might be beneficial when people are trying to change behaviors. To see the self as different, change the way in which you see memories of that previous version of yourself.
When memories come to mind, you typically see the memory from either the original field perspective or from the external observer point of view. But memories are malleable. You can change your memory perspective like the director changing the movie camera angle. Doing so changes the emotional experience and how much you feel you have changed.
