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Fool me twice: how effective is debriefing in false memory studies?
Gillian Murphy1, Elizabeth Loftus2, Rebecca Hofstein Grady2
1School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Memory (Hove, England)
|August 9, 2020
Summary
Debriefing after false memory studies may reduce misinformation effects long-term. Participants exposed to fake news showed fewer false memories six months later, with no negative impacts observed.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Memory Studies
Background:
- Deception is integral to false memory research, particularly for studying misinformation.
- The long-term impact of debriefing on misinformation effects remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the lasting effects of misinformation exposure and debriefing in a false memory study.
- To assess memory recall for fabricated and real news stories six months post-experiment.
Main Methods:
- Follow-up study with 630 participants previously exposed to fabricated political news.
- Comparison of memory recall between 'continuing participants' and 474 new recruits.
- Assessment of false memories for previously seen and novel fake news, and for true events.
Main Results:
- Continuing participants exhibited reduced false memory recall for previously seen fake news compared to new recruits.
- Fewer false memories were reported by continuing participants for novel fake news stories.
- Continuing participants showed enhanced recall for previously seen true events over novel true events.
- No significant negative long-term effects were found; some positive effects were noted.
Conclusions:
- Debriefing in false memory studies may mitigate long-term susceptibility to misinformation.
- Participation in false memory experiments appears to have no detrimental long-term cognitive effects.
- Exposure to fabricated news, followed by debriefing, may even enhance memory for true events.
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