How Does Postevent Information Affect Memory?
Misinformation is the confusion that occurs when a person mixes up small details about some objects or events (Newman & Garry, 2013). Postevent information is one of the reasons that provoke the phenomenon of misinformation. Such information is usually presented with inaccuracies and leads to the effect when certain details, which did not appear in a recalled event, seem to be real. For example, if people were asked about the speed of a car when it drove by a barn, which actually was not there, people would report that they saw the barn (Newman & Garry, 2013). This invalid information could stay in one’s memory for a long time even if it was announced to be false.
Which Experiments Explain the Nature of False Memory?
Different approaches are applied to study the phenomenon of false memory. One of the earliest experiments was conducted with the help of British students (Newman & Garry, 2013). They had to read a story and then retell it. The results revealed that mistakes that the students made depended on their life experience. Students replaced unusual for them details with more familiar ones. The participants changed a story to make it more understandable (Newman & Garry, 2013). During another study, people were to read a text about a famous author. When they recalled it afterwards, they added details that were not in the text, though were well-known facts about the author. This study showed that the people’s experience caused memory errors. A three-stage procedure, which is widely used to research a false memory phenomenon, was established based on these experiments (Newman & Garry, 2013). The first stage is to demonstrate some events to participants. The second stage is to give them additional information about that event. The last stage is to analyze the participant’s memories of the initially watched episode.
What Was the Design of Loftus and Palmer (1974)?
In this experiment, people were asked to estimate the speed of a car before an accident. If the question contained the word “smash” instead of “hit” or “collide,” the estimated speed was higher (Newman & Garry, 2013). Thus, the Loftus and Palmer scheme consisted of the presented event, comments and the test, which showed that manipulation with similar words might cause a misinformation phenomenon. A replication of this experiment was performed years later (Goldschmied, Sheptock, Kim, & Galily, 2017). The participants watched a video of a hockey collision and were asked to estimate the speed of the players. The commentator described the collision using different words. When he said “smash,” the participants thought that the players were moving slower than when the commentator used the word “contact.” Also, assumptions about the severity of the collision varied depending on the commentaries.
What Are the Different Types of False Memory?
There are two types of false memory. The first type is the misinformation effect. It occurs when people mix up certain details of a recalled event or object. This phenomenon affects most people. The second type is related to situations when an entire event seems to be real, though, in fact, it did not happen. Such cases are well-known in legal practice. Due to inaccurate testimonies caused by a false memory, “Von Williams was sentenced to 50 years in prison. But Von Williams did not commit the crime” (Newman & Garry, 2013, p. 110). This type of false memory is less common. However, the outcomes could be extremely serious.
References
Goldschmied, N., Sheptock, M., Kim, K., & Galily, Y. (2017). Appraising Loftus and Palmer (1974) post-event information versus concurrent commentary in the context of sport. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(11), 2347-2356.
Newman, E. J., & Garry, M. (2013). False memory. In T.J. Perfect & D.S. Lindsay (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of applied memory (pp. 110-126). New York, NY: SAGE Publications.