The goal of the study was to describe how Brainard & Reyna's Fuzzy trace theory, along with other theories about memory and misinformation contribute to the study of how postevent information influences people's memory.

University of California, Davis

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


How Misinformation Alters Memory

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

Goal of Study

The authors looked at different response formats for studies conducted about post event memory.

Response Format

- greater misinformation effects after a marginable delay initial presentation and misinformation, and when testing is after misinformation

Conditions that maximize misinformation effects

- Establishes quality of memory through measuring aspects of said memories

Quality of memories

Events that eliminates access to memories

Suppressing hits

Adding misinformation to a memory report (Wright & Loftus, 1998).

Learn Before

Related