UC Irvine

This paper reports a new experimental manipulation that increased false memories 1 month after the manipulation. Mirroring the standard three-stage misinformation paradigm (original event, misinformation, and test), subjects in the experimental group were first given a colour-slide presentation of two stories (events), then given an accurate account (instead of misinformation) of the events in narrations, and finally tested for their memory of the original events. One month later, they underwent the standard misinformation paradigm with two new events. The comparison group was given the standard misinformation tasks at both time points. Results showed that the experimental group produced more false memories in the subsequent misinformation paradigm than did the comparison group. We focus on trust and credibility as possible mechanisms underlying this effect. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.