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Blind Procedures

Blind Procedures

Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which...

Blinding

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Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.

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Long-term memory is a relatively permanent type of memory, capable of storing vast amounts of information over extended periods. Its storage capacity is generally considered unlimited.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 28, 2026

Author Spotlight: Quantifying Pain Experience – An Illustrative Approach Using the Pain Body Diagram

Author Spotlight: Quantifying Pain Experience – An Illustrative Approach Using the Pain Body Diagram

Published on: July 7, 2023

Misremembering pain: A memory blindness approach to adding a better end.

Emily J Urban¹, Kevin J Cochran², Amanda M Acevedo²

¹Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA. ejurban@wisc.edu.

Memory & Cognition

|March 5, 2019

Summary

Memory for past pain is malleable. Participants exposed to misinformation about their pain ratings remembered the experience as less painful, demonstrating memory blindness and influencing future decisions.

Keywords:

Decision making Emotion Memory Memory blindness Pain

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Last Updated: Jan 28, 2026

Author Spotlight: Quantifying Pain Experience – An Illustrative Approach Using the Pain Body Diagram

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Published on: July 7, 2023

Mechanical Conflict-Avoidance Assay to Measure Pain Behavior in Mice

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Published on: February 18, 2022

Author Spotlight: Utilizing Infraorbital Nerve Ligation in Mice for Investigating Trigeminal Neuropathic Pain and Treatment Strategies

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Published on: March 8, 2024

Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Behavioral Science

Background:

Memory for past emotions influences future decisions.
Choice blindness research shows individuals often miss misinformation about their own preferences and memories.
This misinformation can alter later recall of past events.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the memory blindness effect in the context of pain memory.
To determine if misinformation about pain ratings affects subsequent recall and willingness to repeat the experience.

Main Methods:

269 participants completed a cold-pressor task, rating pain, distress, and affect.
Participants were later shown manipulated (lower) pain ratings, with some receiving misinformation.
Recall of pain, distress, and affect was assessed in a subsequent session.

Main Results:

Most participants exposed to misinformation failed to detect it and recalled less pain.
Willingness to repeat the task was associated with recalled distress and affect, not just pain intensity.
Memory for affective reactions, not just physical pain, predicted willingness to repeat the aversive experience.

Conclusions:

Memory for painful experiences is highly malleable.
Misinformation can significantly alter pain memory through the memory blindness effect.
Future willingness to undergo aversive experiences may depend more on recalled emotional responses than the intensity of the pain itself.