You don't have to believe everything you read: background knowledge permits fast and efficient validation of information.
In social cognition, knowledge-based validation of information is usually regarded as relying on strategic and resource-demanding processes. Research on language comprehension, in contrast, suggests that validation processes are involved in the construction of a referential representation of the communicated information. This view implies that individuals can use their knowledge to validate incoming information in a routine and efficient manner. Consistent with this idea, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that individuals are able to reject false assertions efficiently when they have validity-relevant beliefs. Validation processes were carried out routinely even when individuals were put under additional cognitive load during comprehension. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the rejection of false information occurs automatically and interferes with affirmative responses in a nonsemantic task (epistemic Stroop effect). Experiment 4 also revealed complementary interference effects of true information with negative responses in a nonsemantic task. These results suggest the existence of fast and efficient validation processes that protect mental representations from being contaminated by false and inaccurate information.
Richter
Tobias
T
Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Koln, Germany. tobias.richter@uni-koeln.de
Schroeder
Sascha
S
Wöhrmann
Britta
B
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D008192:Deception; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis