Are learning and memory affected by the presence of eye contact?

Galusca, C. I. ¹ , Vitale, A. ¹ & Bonatti, L. L. ^{1, 2}

1 Center for Brain and Cognition, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain
2 ICREA

Learning information that can be generalized to kinds relies highly on the presence of ostensive - referential cues used by teachers to direct novices' attention to the relevant aspects of their message (Csibra & Gergely, 2009).

Here, we present six experiments aimed at identifying the kind of information for which ostensive signals are particularly relevant in adults. We isolated a simple ostensive cue, eye contact, and evaluated how adults are influenced by its presence when they are scantly exposed to information of different kinds, ranging from digit, word and nonword span to more complex knowledge such as names or generic/specific facts about novel objects.

We found no effect of eye contact on the low - level tasks. By contrast, eye contact had an impact on the retention of facts, particularly of specific facts. One week after one single exposure to a movie, specific facts were better remembered when presented ostensively. We suggest that in adults, ostensive cues may consolidate the memory traces of episodic facts. Because of its selectivity to particular kinds of information, this effect cannot be a simple increase in attention. Instead, ostensive cues may modify the relevance of otherwise meaningless episodic information.