Misinformation Effect Research Paper

Aamisha Kini
Ms. Taylor
AP Psychology: Period 6
2/15/18
Yuhwa Han. (2017). The Misinformation Effect and the Type of Misinformation: Objects and the Temporal Structure of an Episode. The American Journal of Psychology, 130(4), 467-476. doi:10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.4.0467 In the article, it explains the misinformation effect and suggests that there is a relationship between the effect and temporal misinformation. The misinformation effect is defined as the phenomenon where one reports an inaccurate memory of an event after being given misleading information and is likely to cause false memories. A significant part of the effect is that participants have to experience the original event, and then these episodic memories are distorted. Episodic

In terms of confidence level, the participants were less confident in their temporal order memory (4.03 out of 5 mean score) compared with object memory (4.26 out of 5 mean score) when they were misinformed. The overall results gathered from the experiment indicated that temporal misinformation was seen at a higher rate than object misinformation. In criminal investigations, the misinformation effect is typical, eyewitness testimonies can sometimes lead to false reports and innocent people going to jail. Thus, experiments such as the one described above are allowing researchers to get a clearer sense of how the brain processes different memories. This experiment made it clear that there is a relationship between the misinformation effect and temporal

Thompson said that “she tried to pay attention to every detail of the man who attacked her” and when it came to both the photo and live line up she picked out Cotton. Thompson was also subject to the misinformation effect, after going through the live lineup police told her that she had picked the same man in the photo lineup, making her even more sure that she had the right man. She created a false memory of the night she was raped. The experiment goes on to explain that this and many other experiments are being conducted by researchers for the purpose of cases like this so that no more innocent people are sent to jail. The research has started building in this area, since the time of this case. The findings in this experiment allow us to see that one of the main factors playing a role in the misinformation effect is temporal misinformation. Sequencing and stringing together events and then being able to pick up on details is much more difficult to do than identifying objects. The article suggests that a lot more research has to be conducted to clearly understand the source of the misinformation effect, but they have started piecing things together. Although eyewitness testimony is reliable sometimes it may not be, as more research comes together, the process has to become fool-proof