The Effects of Overt Head Movements on Valenced Image Recognition and Recall in Bulgarians

Vertical and horizontal head movements (universally associated with nodding and shaking, respectively) have frequently been demonstrated to affect cognitive processes. Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that overt head movements can influence memory for valenced images. In the first experiment, participants were instructed to perform either vertical or horizontal head movements while viewing a slideshow of 76 randomized positive and negative images, which they later had to recognize from a set containing 50% of the same target images and 50% distractor images. No interaction between head movement type and image valence was obtained. In the second experiment, participants were told to remember as many images as possible from a slideshow of 60 randomized valenced images, which they were later asked to freely recall. A significant interaction was obtained, with a higher rate of recall for positive images when vertical head movements (VHM) were performed and a higher rate of recall for negative images when horizontal head movements (HHM) were performed.