Psychology 12 Mackenzie Wilson

Burden 03/14/17
The Misinformation Effect

Over 70% of false-convictions in the Unites States of America, disproven by

DNA testing are due to inaccurate eyewitness testimonies. This is not because almost

three quarters of eyewitnesses purposefully decide to lie in court; this is because of a

complicated impairment of memory known as the Misinformation Effect. The

Misinformation Effect, simply put, is when an individuals recall of an episodic memory

becomes less accurate after exposure to misleading information post-event. Essentially,

when specific and targeted questions are used when asking a person to recall a memory, it

can change the way the person remembers it. Although many have deemed the

Misinformation Effect a scientific phenomenon, research has amply proven its

legitimacy. The research conducted has also uncovered just how relevant and problematic

this topic truly is to society. Further, the desire for a deep and complete understanding of

the Misinformation Effect has helped provide valuable information about the storage and

retrieval of memory.

Many experiments have been conducted to prove and explain the Misinformation

Effect. Elizabeth Loftus, the leading expert on the topic, is responsible for the majority of

what is known about the misinformation effect today. In one of her many famous

experiments, participants watched a video involving an auto-pedestrian accident and a

stop sign. A portion of the participants were subsequently asked if the car involved was

passed by another vehicle while stopped at a yield sign. In a later test of their memory,
participants were required to choose between two images that depicted the scene, one

with a stop sign and one with a yield sign. 75% of the control participants (those who had

not been mislead) correctly chose the image they had seen depicting the stop sign,

whereas only 41% of the misled participants did. This use of misinformation lead to a

34% difference in accuracy (Loftus, Miller, Burns, 1978). Targeted questions that dont

necessarily include incorrect information can also influence ones recall of a memory.

The specific use of verbs and adjectives can disrupt and impair the accuracy of a memory

after its been stored. For example, when participants in another experiment viewed a

video of a two cars crashing, those who were asked how fast the cars were going when

they smashed together reported much higher speeds, as well as claims of seeing broken

glass (which was not present) than those who were asked using verbs such as bumped

or hit (Loftus and Palmer, 1974). These cases display just how malleable memories are,

as well as how real the consequences can be.

Everyone is susceptible to the Misinformation Effect, although different traits can

influence just how susceptible one is. Even the knowledge and warning of the

Misinformation Effect can hinder one more susceptible to its damaging effects (Greene et

al. 1982). Age, working memory capacity, personality traits and imagery abilities are all

factors that influence ones likeliness to succumb to suggestion. Young children are more

susceptible than older children, who are more susceptible than adults, who are less

susceptible than elderly people (Ceci and Bruck 1993, Karpel et al. 2001). This

inclusiveness is a major concern when it comes to eyewitness testimony, as almost

anyone can be lead astray by an interrogator, although not everyone is. An experiment
proved that a witness is more likely to provide false information when questioned on

unusual details (Dale, Loftus, and Rathbun 1978), as witnesses on the stand typically are.

In the experiment, a teacher who was wearing a hat was put in a room and spoke to 20

children for 5 minutes. When the teacher left the room, the children were asked what

hand the teacher was holding his hat in. 10 students replied right, 7 replied left, and only

3 replied that the teacher was wearing it. This experiment helped prove two other

important points. The first being that children are not reliable witnesses, and the second

being that even with such a susceptible group (young children), there were still a small

percentage of students that could be relied on to deflect the effects of misinformation.

This begs the conclusion that the same small percentage of people in society exist to

provide accurate eyewitness testimonies, but determining that group of people would be

near impossible.

An important piece of understanding the Misinformation Effect is to understand

what happens to the original memory after it has been altered. As always, the answer is

complicated. The most popular and debated hypothesis, that of McCloskey and Zaragoza

(1985) is that misinformation merely influences the reports of those who never encoded,

or for other reasons are unable to recall the original event. McCloskey and Zaragoza

worked to prove their hypothesis by creating a new type of experiment, but their work

was inconclusive, meaning that there are different ways by which people come to report

misinformation as true memory. The Misinformation Effect can occur because there is no

original memory (it was never stored or it has faded), or because of deliberation; in some

research it appears as though the original event memory has indeed been impaired in the
process of contemplating misinformation (Ayers and Reder 1998). The question of what

happens to a memory once it has been damaged by misinformation coincides with the

much broader and frequently asked questions about the fates of ones long-term

memories. Once stored, is a long-term memory permanent, even if it cant be retrieved on

demand? Or do memory traces become susceptible to decay, damage and alteration?

Research on the misinformation effect has helped psychologists answer these questions,

and has aided them to conclude that memories can fade and become confused over time,

especially when misinformation is suggested.

Misinformation can lead someone to believe they saw details that were only just

suggested to them. It can lead someone to have very rich and deep false memories. It can

lead someone to inaccurately identify an accused criminal at the witness stand and send

that person to prison. The effects of the misinformation effect are both real and

dangerous, and at times the consequences can be extreme. Learning about that

misinformation effect has largely aided in proving how malleable memories are, as well

as how unreliable eyewitness testimony can be. If a single word can change how one

recalls a memory, just how valid are ones memories? The Misinformation Effect brings

to light many important faults in our memories, and causes one to question their

credibility.
References:
Ayers, M. S., & Reder, L. M. (1998). A theoretical review of the misinformation effect:
Predictions from an activation-based memory model. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5,
121.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03209454

Ceci, S.J. and Bruck, M. 1993. The suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review
and synthesis. Retrieved from
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/089892901564261#.WO7bshjMxE4

Dale, P. S., Loftus, E. F., & Rathbun, L. (1978). The influence of the form of the question
on the eyewitness testimony of preschool children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research,
7(4), 269-277
https://psychlopedia.wikispaces.com/misinformation+effect
Greene, E., Flynn, M.S., and Loftus, E.F. 1982. Inducing resistance to misleading
information. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour. 21, 207-219.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022537182905710

Karpel, M.E., Hoyer, W.J., and Toglia, M.P. 2001. Accuracy and qualities of real and
suggested memories: Nonspecific age differences. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12087621_Accuracy_and_Qualities_of_Real_a
nd_Suggested_Memories_Nonspecific_Age_Differences

Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. E. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An

example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning
and Verbal Behavior, 13, 585589.
https://webfiles.uci.edu/eloftus/LoftusPalmer74.pdf

Loftus, E. F., Miller, D. G., & Burns, H. J. (1978). Semantic integration of verbal
information into a visual memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Learning and Memory, 4, 1931.
https://webfiles.uci.edu/eloftus/LoftusMillerBurns_StopYield_JEP-HLM78.pdf

McCloskey, M., & Zaragoza, M. (1985). Misleading postevent information and memory
for events: Arguments and evidence against memory impairment hypotheses. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 114, 116.
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mzaragoz/publications/Zaragoza%20chapter
%204%20Garry%20Hayne.pdf