Omitting information increases the vulnerability of gist and verbatim information

Omission of information

This study's results support the memory consolidation model that states memories are restructured during sleep, leading to "big picture" representations in long-term memory. This suggests that in order to get the most accurate eyewitness accounts, witnesses should be interviewed as soon as possible, specifically before they sleep. The idea of a "cooling off period" leading to better memory consolidation is not supported by this study. 

Implications of Misinformation Effect and Sleep Study

- Gist memory captures the overarching meaning of a memory
- Last longer than verbatim memory
- More likely to be a gist memory for the whole memory

University of California, Davis

In Fuzzy Trace Theory, it's presumed that both gist and verbatim memories are created in parallel and accessed separately. Gist and verbatim memories refer to familiarity within an episodic memory (Wright & Lotus, 1998).

Fuzzy Trace Theory

Wright, D. B., & Loftus, E. F. (1998). How misinformation alters memories. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 71(2), 155-164.


How Misinformation Alters Memory

Gist memory

- Verbatim memory explains the intimate details of a scenario
- Decays faster and feeds into gist memory

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