title: Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors.
abstract: Surprisingly, people incorporate errors into their knowledge bases even when they have the correct knowledge stored in memory (e.g., Fazio, Barber, Rajaram, Ornstein, & Marsh, 2013). We examined whether heightening the accessibility of correct knowledge would protect people from later reproducing misleading information that they encountered in fictional stories. In Experiment 1, participants studied a series of target general knowledge questions and their correct answers either a few minutes (high accessibility of knowledge) or 1 week (low accessibility of knowledge) before exposure to misleading story references. In Experiments 2a and 2b, participants instead retrieved the answers to the target general knowledge questions either a few minutes or 1 week before the rest of the experiment. Reading the relevant knowledge directly before the story-reading phase protected against reproduction of the misleading story answers on a later general knowledge test, but retrieving that same correct information did not. Retrieving stored knowledge from memory might actually enhance the encoding of relevant misinformation.
authors: Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Box 90086, Durham, NC, 27708-0086, USA, hgm8@duke.edu.
authors: Hillary G
authors: HG
authors: Mullet
authors: Sharda
authors: S
authors: Umanath
authors: Elizabeth J
authors: EJ
authors: Marsh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult