Misinformation Effect and Memory of Events

Interviews

Elizabeth Loftus, a prominent psychologist, has conducted research on the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Her research has shown that memory of an event can be influenced by what happens after an event. For example, the form of questioning that an eyewitness receives after an event, can influence what a person recalls about an event--hence the term, post-event effect. 

When the post-event is misinformation, the effect has been called the misinformation effect.

This effect has been demonstrated in many studies, including the classic psychology study by Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction. The study showed that leading questions could distort eyewitness testimony accounts and so have a confabulating effect, as the account would become distorted by cues provided in the question.

Reference

Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal behavior, 13, 585-589.

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

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Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Post-Event Effect and Loftus Research

 

Elizabeth Loftus, a prominent psychologist, has conducted research on the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Her research has shown that memory of an event can be influenced by the form of questioning that an eyewitness receives after the event, which is known as the post-event effect. 

When the post-event is misinformation, the effect has been called the misinformation effect.

This effect has been demonstrated in many studies, including the classic psychology study by Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction. The study showed that leading questions could distort eyewitness testimony accounts and so have a confabulating effect, as the account would become distorted by cues provided in the question.

How does Loftus work relate to the Rashomon effect?

The Rashomon effect is often used to emphasize the point that people’s perceptions about an event can differ considerably based on their individual personal experiences.

While the Rashomon effect and the post-event effect are both related to the reliability of eyewitness testimony, they are distinct phenomena. The Rashomon effect is concerned with the differences in perception among observers of an event, while the post-event effect is concerned with how subsequent information can affect an eyewitness's account of an event.

Resources

Loftus, E. F. (1981). Eyewitness Testimony: Psychological Research and Legal Thought. Crime and Justice, 3, 105–151. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147378

 Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal behavior, 13, 585-589.

Weinberg, H. I., Wadsworth, J., & Baron, R. S. (1983). Demand and the impact of leading questions on eyewitness testimony. Memory & cognition, 11(1), 101–104. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03197667

A Related Resources

Rashomon Effect

Myth: Eyewitness Testimony is the Best Kind of Evidence

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Primacy effect in psychology

The primacy effect is a serial position effect evidenced by better memory for items presented first in a list of items compared to the recall of items in the middle.

The better recall of the first few items is attributed to the ability to rehearse those items more than other items.

For a summary of results with different lengths of word lists and mild cognitive impairment, see Howieson et al. (2010).

Reference

Howieson, D. B., Mattek, N., Seeyle, A. M., Dodge, H. H., Wasserman, D., Zitzelberger, T., & Jeffrey, K. (2011). Serial position effects in mild cognitive impairment. Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 33(3), 292–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2010.516742

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Recency effect in psychology

 The recency effect is a serial position effect evident by a person's better recall of more recent information than recall of earlier information.

The effect is based on the work of Hermann Ebbinghaus who studied the capacity to remember lists. Items at the end of the list (the most recent items) were recalled better than those in the middle. Those items at the beginning were also recalled better than those in the middle (primacy effect).

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Irrelevant speech effect in psychology

 The irrelevant speech effect refers to reduced recall of information when irrelevant speech or sounds are present.

Read more

Elliott E. M. (2002). The irrelevant-speech effect and children: theoretical implications of developmental change. Memory & cognition, 30(3), 478–487. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03194948

Hanley, J.R., Bakopoulou, E. Irrelevant speech, articulatory suppression, and phonological similarity: A test of the phonological loop model and the feature model. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 10, 435–444 (2003). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196503

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Google effect

The Google effect (also referred to as digital amnesia) is a tendency to forget information that can be quickly found online using a search engine such as Google.

Reference

Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D.M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science, 333, 776-778. DOI:10.1126/science.1207745

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Generation effect in psychology

Creating enhances remembering (2023)
Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI

 In memory research, the generation effect refers to a reliable finding that people remember information better when they create the information rather than try to remember something they read or heard.

For a review of the generation effect, see McCurdy et al. (2020).

Reference

McCurdy, M.P., Viechtbauer, W., Sklenar, A.M. et al. Theories of the generation effect and the impact of generation constraint: A meta-analytic review. Psychon Bull Rev 27, 1139–1165 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01762-3

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Levels-of-processing effect in psychology

 

Complex connections 2023
Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI

The Levels-of-Processing Effect (LOP) refers to the finding that more elaborate processing of information produces better recall compared to minimal or shallow processing.

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Fan effect in psychology

Which fruit was it? 2023
Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI

 The fan effect refers to a pattern of multiple associations in memory that make it more difficult to recall concepts that have multiple associations compared to those with fewer associations.

The effect is measured by increased response time and error rates for recall tasks.

The effect is credited to psychological scientist John Anderson.

References

Anderson, J. R. (1974). Retrieval of propositional information from long-term memory. Cognitive Psychology, 6(4), 451–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(74)90021-8

Anderson, J. R., & Reder, L. M. (1999). The fan effect: New results and new theories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128(2), 186–197. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.128.2.186

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Serial position effect in psychology

Learning 2023

The serial position effect refers to the tendency of people to remember the first and last items in a list better than the middle items. 

There are two related effects.

1. The primacy effect is the enhanced memory for the first few items in a list.

Earlier items may be remembered well because of the time for more rehearsal and encoding of these items into long-term memory.

2. The recency effect is the enhanced memory for the last few items in a list. These may be recalled more easily if they are stored in short-term memory. 

It is easier to forget the middle items in a list compared to the early and more recent items due to less processing of the information.

The serial position effect was first discovered by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist who studied his ability to remember syllables. His work has led to variations on memory tasks such as memory for words and pictures.

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Dementia

Dementia is a neurocognitive disorder characterized by impaired cognitive processes of attention, memory, thinking, and decision making.

Dementia is caused by various diseases. One common disease is Alzheimer's disease. Other types of dementia include:

Vascular dementia

Lewy body dementia,

Fronto-temporal dementia

Mixed dementia

Dementia is most commonly observed in older adults but it is not a part of normal aging.

Assessment of Dementia

Clinical neuropsychologists evaluate a patient's cognitive abilities for impairments. In addition, clinical neuropsychologists assess adaptive functioning. That is, how well the person manages vocational, social, and other dimensions of life. Dementia affects people in different ways. Although memory and thinking processes are hallmarks of the dementias, changes in personality patterns and emotional functioning combine to interfere with personal and social functioning.

Physicians may perform medical tests and prescribe medication. Often, there are other medical conditions to consider as a part of the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment options.

The data not only identify a patient's current status but the data also provides a baseline to measure future changes in cognitive and adaptive abilities. Although, in cases of an identifiable disease process, the future is usually a decline in functioning, some causes of dementia may be reversible. In addition, new medications may reduce the rate of decline.

Resources

CDC Centers of Disease Control and Prevention

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Spacing effect in psychology

  

The spacing effect in psychology is an observed effect of better memory for studied material when learning sessions are separated into several short times separated by breaks (distributed practice) in contrast to a long study session (massed practice).

Also called: the distributed-practice effect

Example

 A student preparing for a French vocabulary test will likely more by studying the French words during brief sessions each day before the test instead of  one long session on one day.

The spacing effect has been demonstrated with a wide range of learning paradigms, materials, and participants, but the precise mechanisms underlying it remain unclear.

There are several theories to explain the reliable finding.

Consolidation theory- new presentations create new representations of the studied items

Deficient processing theory- attention is aroused more in short sessions because the material is presented anew and not residing in memory

Encoding variability theory- Multiple sessions add more context cues stored with the studied material, which improves cognitive pathways to the contents.

Study-phase retrieval theory- when studying again, people notice the item and in effect, practice retrieval

 

 

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.