,Planting misinformation in the human mind: A 30-year investigation of the
malleability of memory -- Loftus, E.F. (2005)
The misinformation effect: Impairment in memory that arises after exposure to misleading
information (change in reporting).
● People have recalled nonexistent objects, mislead into remembering things
(e.g., hammers as screwdrivers)
The When Question (conditions when particularly susceptible)
Certain experimental conditions are associated with greater susceptibility to
misinformation.
● Misinformation introduced when original event memory is fading as time passes
→ less likely that the discrepancy is noted while the misinformation is being
processed
❖ The Discrepancy Detection principle (DDP): The recollections are more likely
to change if a person does not immediately detect discrepancies between
misinformation and memory for the original event
→ false memories can still occur even if a discrepancy is noticed (“oh, I think I
remembered wrong”
● The period between the misinformation and the test
→ With a short interval between the misinformation and the test, subjects are less
likely to claim that the misinformation item was in the event only
● Temporarily changing someone’s state can increase misinformation effects (alcohol,
hypnotized) → more susceptible
Warnings
● Warning people that they may be exposed to misinformation sometimes help them
resist the misinformation.
→ The person scrutinizes the post-event information for discrepancies (DDP)
● Warning after showing the misinformation (post-misinformation warnings) did not
improve the ability to resist its damaging effects
→ Misinformation had already been incorporated into the memory and an altered
memory now exists in the mind of the individual
● An immediate post-misinformation warning helped subjects resist the
misinformation, but only when the misinformation was in a relatively low state of
accessibility (presenting misinformation multiple times versus a single time)
, → It didn’t seem to matter whether the warning was quite general (the narrative of
some objects and events inaccurate) or item-specific (mentioning the misleading
details, “misinformation about the tool”)
→ Suppression hypothesis: When people get a warning, they suppress the
misinformation and it has less ability to interfere with answering on the final
test
→ Suppression might have more trouble working when misinformation is too
accessible (might distract the subject from thinking to scrutinize the
misinformation for discrepancies from original event memory)
The Who Question (types of people)
Age:
- Young children are more susceptible to misinformation than older children and
adults
- The elderly are more susceptible than are younger adults
→ The role of cognitive resources, since we also know that misinformation effects are
stronger when attentional resources are limited
→ Suggestion-induced distortion in memory is a phenomenon that occurs with people of all
ages, even if it is more pronounced with certain age groups
Personality:
- Empathy, absorption, and self-monitoring associated with greater susceptibility to
misinformation
- The more one has self-reported lapses in memory and attention, the more
susceptible one is to misinformation effects
Other species:
- Gorillas, rats
- Pigeons: Amazing ability to remember pictures that they were shown as long as two
years earlier, can be disrupted by misinformation.
➔ The misinformation effect is not just a simple matter of retrograde interference
- Retrograde interference is a mere disruption in performance, not a biasing
effect. That is, it typically makes memory worse, but does not pull for any
particular wrong answer.
→ The misinformation appears to have a specific biasing effect
➔ The misinformation effects are not a product of mere demand characteristics
- They are not produced by “people” who give a response just to please the
experimenter, even when it is not the response they think they should give
The fate of the original memory? (The permanence of long-term memories)
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