Project

    proposal slides poster report data

    Misinformation effect means the impairment in the memory of the past event when a misleading information is provided for that event after its occurrence[1]. The first known study in this area was done by E. Loftus et al. After that few studies and experiment have been conducted by the researchers which showed that the results found out gave the notion about the generality of the findings[3]. The information that was given in most of the experiments was either consistent, misleading one or an irrelevant at all. It was observed that misleading information produced more incorrect responses as compared to consistent or irrelevant information[2]. Present study tries to focus on the modified methodology and experiment used by Okado and Stark(2005)[4][5].


    Here I have tried to analyse the situation of inversing the approach taken by the original experimenters i.e. first to give the narration information and then to provide the visual information alongwith the original experiment for the comparison. I have tried to find out its significance which also includes the distinction based on the age group. The results obtained, validated the phenomenon and shed some light on the age dependency of this effect. A striking observation was found which was the main goal of doing this project in the first place. The inverse approach showed that the frequency lowered as compared to the normal approach of conditioning.


    References

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation_effect

  2. Loftus E. Semantic Integration of Verbal Information into a Visual Memory. J. of Exp. Psy. (1978)

  3. Elizabeth F. Loftus and Hunter G. Hoffman. Misinformation and Memory: The Creation of New Memories. J. of Exp. Psy. (1989)

  4. Patihis, L. (2012). Memory Distortions: Individual Differences and Paradigm Comparisons. (Masters' thesis). Retrieved from Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 1512095)

  5. Okado Y. and Stark C. Neural activity during encoding predicts false memories created by misinformation. Learn. Mem. (2005)