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Correcting eyewitness suggestibility: does explanatory role predict resistance to correction?

Braun, Blair E
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605620664101365

Abstract Details

2020, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences.
Many studies have documented that exposure to post event misinformation can lead eyewitnesses to misremember witnessing events they did not see and do so with high confidence. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether reporting of suggested misinformation can be reversed following a correction, and if so, whether misinformation would be more resistant to correction when it serves an explanatory function than when it does not. In two experiments participants witnessed an event, were exposed to a blatantly false suggestion(s) and one week later received a correction followed by a test of their memory for the witnessed event. I found evidence for both the persistence of misinformation following a correction (E1) and the complete reversibility of misinformation effects following a highly salient correction (E2). Although false reporting of the misinformation doubled when it served an explanatory function relative to when it did not (E1 and E2), in both experiments I found no evidence that resistance to correction varied as a function of the misinformation’s explanatory role. My findings suggest that, with a salient correction provided by a credible source, people are capable of updating their knowledge with new information that reverses what they previously thought.
Maria Zaragoza (Advisor)
John Dunlosky (Committee Member)
William Merriman (Committee Member)
Beth Wildman (Committee Member)
83 p.
Cognitive Psychology; Psychology
Eyewitness suggestibility, correcting misinformation, false memory, explanatory role, explanatory coherence

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Braun, B. E. (2020). Correcting eyewitness suggestibility: does explanatory role predict resistance to correction? [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605620664101365

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Braun, Blair. Correcting eyewitness suggestibility: does explanatory role predict resistance to correction? 2020. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605620664101365.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Braun, Blair. "Correcting eyewitness suggestibility: does explanatory role predict resistance to correction?" Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605620664101365

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1605620664101365
237
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This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.