People who walk backwards perform better in a memory test than those who stand still or walk forward, a study has found.

Researchers asked 114 volunteers to watch a video in which a woman had her bag stolen and then answer a questionnaire about what they could recall.

After watching the video, participants were split into groups - one was told to walk forwards or backwards 30 feet (10m) while a control group stood in one place.

They were then asked twenty questions about the events in the video and it was found that the backward-walking group got two more answers correct on average than the forward-walkers and the non-walkers.

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People who walk backwards perform better in a memory test than those who stand still or walk forward, a study has found. Researchers asked 114 volunteers to watch a video in which a woman had her bag stolen and answer a questionnaire about what they could recall (stock)

Experts from the University of Roehampton discovered a similar effect in five variations of the experiment.

One of them involved a similar procedure but tested how many words the volunteers could remember from a list.

In others, participants simply imagined moving forwards or backwards, or watched a video filmed on a train, which created the impression of moving forwards or backwards.

In all scenarios, the backwards group or those who imagined walking backwards got the most answers right.

The team deemed this as a statistically significant experiment and an indication that a link between the concepts of 'time' and 'space' is essential to the way our minds form memories.

'It's a partial vindication of this idea that time is really expressed via space,' says Aksentijevic Aksentijevic, who led the study.

After watching the video, participants were split into groups - one was told to walk forwards or backwards 30 feet (10m) while a control group stood in one place. People who walked backwards remembered more (stock image)

It is still not clear why motion, real or imagined, should improve our access to memories but Dr Aksentijevic hopes further research will shed light on as well as how to use it to our advantage.

'I am sure that some of this work could be useful in helping people remember things, but how is a question for more research,' he said.

Richard Allen at the University of Leeds, UK, says the results are interesting, and might offer ways to improve memory function.

'However, I think we need to see the results clearly replicated by other research groups before we can start to be confident about this effect and its interpretation,' Dr Allen said.