The quality of false memory over time: is memory for misinformation "remembered" or "known"?
The conscious quality of eyewitness memory for misinformation after different retention intervals was investigated in two experiments. Participants viewed computer-projected slides depicting a crime (encoding phase), read a narrative containing misinformation, and took a recall test about the original event. Remember/know judgments were made for each response. A "remember" judgment indicated that the participant vividly recalled seeing a detail in the encoding phase. A "know" judgment indicated that the participant believed that a detail was presented but did not vividly remember it. Generally, misinformation was more likely to be associated with a know judgment than with a remember judgment after a short retention interval. This outcome suggests that, in many cases, misleading information is judged as having a different subjective quality than memory for actual events. However, over a relatively long retention interval, misinformation that simply added new information about the event was more often judged as remembered.
Frost
P
P
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Rivier College, Nashua, NH 03060, USA. pfrost@rivier.edu
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013997:Time Factors