Attributional biases and the inability to ignore retracted information
File(s)
Date
2015-05Author
Bivens, Seneca A.
Advisor(s)
Chrobak, Quin
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The purpose of the study was to explore factors that result in one type of distortion in
memory. In particular, previous research has shown that people have a difficult time
disregarding causal information that has later been retracted (e.g., Johnson & Seifert,
1994). The present investigation was designed to explore whether or not the nature of the
experienced event (whether it is personally relevant to a person or not) influences this
tendency. Participants were presented with stories about an airplane crash that was either
personally relevant to participants (i.e., the plane departed from Milwaukee airport) or
not personally relevant (i.e., the plane departed from Paris airport). Participants were
given an initial cause for the airplane crash (engine malfunction), that was subsequently
discredited in one of two ways. In the Negation Only condition, participants simply
learned that the original cause was inaccurate. By contrast, in the Alternative condition,
participants were also provided an alternative explanation for why the event occurred.
Finally, participants were tested to see how much of their understanding of the events
was influenced by the initial causal explanation. Results indicated that participants
continued to rely on the initial causal explanation whether they were given a retraction or
a retraction with an alternative explanation, which further supported previous research on
the continued influence effect. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant effect
of personal relevance on the number of inferences made. However, when participants
were given a negation only, they were numerically more likely to make inferences based
on the original causal explanation when the story was personally relevant. These results
are discussed in the context of previous research on the continued influence effect.
Subject
Witnesses
Collective memory
Memory
False memory syndrome
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/72915Description
A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science-Psychology Cognitive and Affective Science