ERIC Number: EJ1163725
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Dec
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
The Role of Familiarity in Correcting Inaccurate Information
Swire, Briony; Ecker, Ullrich K. H.; Lewandowsky, Stephan
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v43 n12 p1948-1961 Dec 2017
People frequently continue to use inaccurate information in their reasoning even after a credible retraction has been presented. This phenomenon is often referred to as the continued influence effect of misinformation. The repetition of the original misconception within a retraction could contribute to this phenomenon, as it could inadvertently make the "myth" more familiar--and familiar information is more likely to be accepted as true. From a dual-process perspective, familiarity-based acceptance of myths is most likely to occur in the absence of strategic memory processes. Thus, we examined factors known to affect whether strategic memory processes can be utilized: age, detail, and time. Participants rated their belief in various statements of unclear veracity, and facts were subsequently affirmed and myths were retracted. Participants then rerated their belief either immediately or after a delay. We compared groups of young and older participants, and we manipulated the amount of detail presented in the affirmative or corrective explanations, as well as the retention interval between encoding and a retrieval attempt. We found that (a) older adults over the age of 65 were worse at sustaining their postcorrection belief that myths were inaccurate, (b) a greater level of explanatory detail promoted more sustained belief change, and (c) fact affirmations promoted more sustained belief change in comparison with myth retractions over the course of 1 week (but not over 3 weeks), This supports the notion that familiarity is indeed a driver of continued influence effects.
Descriptors: Information Utilization, Familiarity, Error Correction, Misconceptions, Memory, Cognitive Processes, Beliefs, Age Groups, Age Differences, Retention (Psychology), Intervals, Comparative Analysis, Attitude Change, Sustainability, Influences, Experiments, Undergraduate Students, Statistical Analysis, Foreign Countries, Older Adults, Statistical Inference, Error Patterns
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A