title: Warnings reduce false memories for missing aspects of events.
abstract: When people see movies with some parts missing, they falsely recognize many of the missing parts later. In two experiments, we examined the effect of warnings on people's false memories for these parts. In Experiment 1, warning subjects about false recognition before the movie (forewarnings) reduced false recognition, but warning them after the movie (postwarnings) reduced false recognition to a lesser extent. In Experiment 2, the effect of the warnings depended on the nature of the missing parts. Forewarnings were more effective than postwarnings in reducing false recognition of missing noncrucial parts, but forewarnings and postwarnings were similarly effective in reducing false recognition of crucial missing parts. We use the source monitoring framework to explain our results.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. matthew.gerrie@vuw.ac.nz
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Gerrie
authors.forename: Maryanne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garry
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009040:Motion Pictures; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult