Close your eyes to help remember better

If you can't remember the password, try to close your eyes. Scientific experiments show that recall is enhanced when we close our eyes.

Psychologists at Surrey University (UK) have experimented with 200 men and women. Volunteers were shown some short films and then they got a series of questions about the movie they just watched.

Police often encourage witnesses to close their eyes when recalling details of crime.

The first film has no sound and shows the scene of a robber electrician while repairing electricity at a house. Later, volunteers answered a series of questions about what they had just seen, half of which answered when they closed their eyes.

Those who opened their eyes answered exactly 48%, much lower than the exact answer of 71% of those who closed their eyes.

The second movie is taken from BBC Channel's long-running television series Crimewatch including audio and visuals. The people who closed their eyes recalled more about the movie just watching.

Dr. Robert Nash explained that when closing his eyes, everyone's thoughts will not be distracted . He said police have long known the benefits of this and often asked witnesses to close their eyes when answering questions.

The team also believes that close-up is also beneficial in everyday situations, such as recalling codes and remembering a list of things to buy. Previous studies have shown that closing eyes may increase the likelihood of recalling events that occurred a few years ago.