Misinformation and False Memories in Humans

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Understanding the Mind
Definition of key words
Aim and hypothesis
Methodology
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether early alertness on misinformation reduces chances of creating false memories in humans, and whether there was any relationship between DRM false memories and misinformation. As noticed from the study, initial perceptions on certain issues or events created after receiving the first information always affects human memory.

As evident from the findings of this study, there is a relatively positive correlation between early alertness about the occurrence of misinformation and chances of creating false memories about certain events in human beings.

Children filled with misconstrued information about certain aspects of their childhood will eventually build false memories due to receiving misleading information earlier. Alerting or warning people about incoming information increases their alertness, and thus, reduces chances of building false memories. The DRM technique of identifying false memories in humans is practicable in human cognitive psychology.

Understanding the Mind

The impact of misleading information on people’s perception of certain life events, issues, or experiences is still unknown. How people communicate and interpret information during conversation is imperative in determining the final perception of the content delivered (Blair, Lenton, & Hastie, 2002).

Evidence from numerous prior studies indicates that people can develop false memories about certain events they witnessed if they deliberately received wrong information regarding the events (Roediger & McDermott, 1995; Hyman & Billings, 1998). Scientific investigations indicate that informing people earlier on possibilities of receiving misleading information often reduces the chances of creating false memories.

Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm of cognitive psychology assumes that false memories happen when people provide wrong words that are absent in a list used in false memory assessments (Blair, Lenton & Hastie, 2002).

More precisely, the DRM false memories scientific paradigm assumes that misconstrued information regarding certain events results in the occurrence of misconceptions (false memories) due to fake memories created in the human brain.

In the same year, in an attempt to establish facts underlying false childhood memories, Roediger and McDermott (1995) investigated the patterns of remembering false events and recalling events that never happened. The study used a word list related to the word ‘sleep’ and employed two experiments to investigate the rates of false recall and false recognition in human memories (Roediger & McDermott, 1995).

The research discovered that approximately 40% of the study participants made false recall and almost 55% of the participants portrayed false recognition (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Subsequently, a recent study by Hyman and Billings (1998) aimed at investigating whether individual variations influenced students in creating false childhood memories.

The researchers in this case interviewed students to examine whether they would present the same information given by their parents. They requested students to recall childhood events on two consecutive days (Hyman & Billings, 1998). Depending on the child’s mentorship, the study revealed that over 25% of the participants created false childhood memories.

Definition of key words

False memories are distorted recollections of the actual experience
DRM paradigm is a cognitive approach used in examining false memories in human beings.
The critical word refers to the central unmentioned word that represents the central theme in the DRM false memory lists.
Misinformation refers to misleading information on certain issues or events.

Aim and hypothesis

Based on the prior investigations concluded on the concept of misinformation and misconception on human’s ability in commemorating certain lifetime events, the intent of this study was to examine such perceptions empirically.

The main aim of the underway study is to investigate whether early alertness on misinformation (acting as the independent variable) reduces the chances of creating false memories (the dependent variable) on the misinformation effect.

The current study also seeks to investigate the relationship between DRM false memories (the independent variable) and misinformation (the dependent variable) as part of human cognitive psychology. In examining the problem from the above-mentioned perspective, the study used the following hypotheses to test certain facts relating to false memories in humans.

H₁: Early alertness reduces the occurrence of misinformation and lowers the chances of creating false memories of events.

H₂: Late alertness and no alertness have the same effect in causing misinformation or false memories.

Pertaining to the first hypothesis, in case the results of the study support the stipulation of the hypothesis, then the result would probably conclude that early alertness reduces the occurrence of misinformation and thus reduces the probability of creating false memories in humans.

If the study concluded in favor of the second hypothesis, then the study would conclude late and no alertness has no influence on the occurrence of that the DRM false memories and misinformation.

Methodology

Study participants

One hundred Deakin HPS203/773 students participated in the online experiment. No record was made of their age and gender, as these variables were not essential to the research question.

Materials and Procedure

Participants had eight word lists, presented one at a given time. The research derived these lists from Roediger and McDermott (1995). Each list consisted of 15 words, with each having related to a central theme. The un-presented theme words were window, cold, cup, sleep, smell, rough, soft, and anger.

The lists were presented in two sets of four. The word lists were read out at a rate of approximately 1word per second. After hearing the first four lists, participants were asked to recall as many words as they could. They had two minutes for their recall. Participants scored their own recall and marked the words that they correctly recalled (maximum of 60) and the words that they incorrectly recalled (maximum of 4, one from each list).

Before participants heard the second four lists, they were given the following warning: “You might have noticed that each list is made of related words; all the words are related to one common word. For example, you heard the words: bed, rest, pillow, snooze, etc. All these words relate to the critical word sleep.

Sometimes people mistakenly remember that this critical word was presented together with all the others, even when it was not presented. If you remembered the word sleep in the first set of words, it was a false memory.

So when I present the next lot of lists, what I’d like you to do is, for each list, try to figure out the critical word that links all the other words together and note whether it was presented or not. Try not to mistakenly remember the critical word if it was not presented.

After the second set of four lists, participants were asked to recall as many as they could. They were given two minutes for their recall. Participants scored their own recall and marked the words that they correctly recalled (maximum of 60) and the words that they incorrectly recalled (maximum of 4, one from each list).

Participants then submitted their results through a website: they submitted the number of correct words and the number of incorrect words that they remembered from Set 1 (before the warning) and the number of correct words and incorrect words that they remembered from Set 2 (after the warning).

Results

Participants submitted the number of correct words and incorrect words they managed to remember from set 1 of the lists (before the warning) and the number of correct words and incorrect words they remembered from the 2^nd set (after the warning). Before the warning, the number of false words (words incorrectly recalled) that the participants reported a mean of 1.75 out of the maximum 4, and a standard deviation of 1.24.

After the warning, the number of words incorrectly recalled by the participants had a mean of 1.45, and a standard deviation of 1.11. The paired t-test resulted that compared the means was t (99) =2.23. p=.028.

In the second phase of questioning, the number of correct words that participants reported had a mean of 17.02 and a standard deviation of 6.48 before the warning. After the warning, the number of words correctly reported by the participants, had a mean of 15.93 and a standard deviation of 5.56, while the paired t-test comparing the means was t(99) = 2.75, p =.007.

Discussion

The most important finding of the study is that early alertness or warning has significant impact in reducing the occurrence of false memories. The findings of the study support the first hypothesis, which states that early alertness reduces the occurrence of misinformation and lowers the chances of creating false memories on events (p>0.05).

High rates of words incorrectly recalled occurred before the warning of participants about the critical words. Recording a relatively higher number of words incorrectly recalled before the warning meant that misinformation occurs more often when the participants have little awareness of the misconstrued information.

Lack of alertness about the occurrence of misinformation makes the participants have high chances of creating false memories relating to the theme presented.

After the warning that gives them high awareness of possibilities of receiving misinformation, participants are capable of recording low numbers of words incorrectly recalled. This means that high alertness about the occurrence of misleading information frequently reduces the chances of creating false memories.

The findings also supported the second hypothesis, which states that late alertness and no alertness have the same effect in causing misinformation or false memories (p<0.05). Before reporting these findings, the initial perception was that there is no positive relationship between DRM memories and misleading information.

DRM false memories postulate that people create false memories on critical words that accommodate several other words of a given theme (Blair, Lenton, & Hastie, 2002). In the list of examinable words provided, participants tended to recall words that were not present in the list, but carried the central theme of the words presented in the list.

Sleep as a critical word, appeared in the participant’s false memories more frequently as one of the words that are renowned in the standard DRM false memory lists. This meant that there was a positive correlation between the DRM memories and misleading information.

The findings are consistent with past research as the science of DRM false memories has been imperative in the educational paradigm, especially when trying to understand the cognitive psychology of children. In establishing facts about false memories in children, Hyman, Husband, and Billings (1995) established that false memories occur due to lack of early warning or alertness among students.

The theoretical explanation of the findings is that early warning or alertness activates schema and enhances memory of a person. Hyman, Husband, and Billings (1995) further revealed that students’ ages were essential in determining results and the way the experimenter created false memories of the events.

In this view, since the study generally examined any participant, its limitation is it does not consider gender and age variations of participants. In real world, activation of schema occurs when students are learning new and strange things, which relate to their experiences in classroom or at home.

Conclusion

Following the conceptions of the DRM paradigm of cognitive psychology, which examines false memories in humans, the chances of having misconstrued memories recalled are high when humans receive the misleading information. However, early alertness about receiving misleading information helps in reducing the chances of building false memories in human brains.

When people remain aware about incoming misleading information, this alertness often reduces the chances of creating false memories. This means that DRM paradigm remains an effective tool in assessing cognitive psychology in humans.

References

Blair, I. V., Lenton, A. P., & Hastie, R. (2002). The reliability of the DRM paradigm as a measure of individual differences in false memories. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(3), 590-596.

Hyman, I. E., & James Billings, F. (1998). Individual differences and the creation of false childhood memories. Memory, 6(1), 1-20.

Hyman, I. E., Husband, T. H., & Billings, F. J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9(3), 181-197.

Roediger, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 803.

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