An exploratory high-density EEG investigation of the misinformation effect: Attentional and recollective differences between true and false perceptual memories

Abstract

The misinformation effect, a phenomenon in which eyewitness memories are altered via exposure to post-event misinformation, is one of the most important paradigms used to investigate the reconstructive nature of human memory. The aim of this study was to use the misinformation effect paradigm to investigate differences in attentional and recollective processing between true and false event memories. Nineteen participants completed a variant of the misinformation paradigm in which recognition responses to true and misinformation based event details embedded within a narrative context, were investigated using high-density (256-channel) EEG with a 1-day delay between event exposure and test. Source monitoring responses were used to isolate event-related-potentials (ERPs) associated with perceptual (i.e. event) source attributions. Temporal-spatial analyses of these ERPs showed evidence of an elevated P3b and Late-Positive Component, associated with stronger context-matching responses and recollective activity respectively, in true perceptual memories relative to false misinformation based ones. These findings represent the first retrieval focused EEG investigation of the misinformation effect and highlight the interplay between attention and retrieval processes in episodic memory recognition.

Attentional responses on an auditory oddball predict false memory susceptibility

“…1. Each test item was tested individually using a procedure utilized in our prior work involving these materials (Kiat & Belli, 2017). First, a partial sentence reinstated the context of the target event detail.…”

“…The primary studies linking attention to false memory susceptibility have been conducted by Tousignant, Hall, and Loftus (1986), Zaragoza and Lane (1998), Lane (2006), Rivardo et al (2011), and Kiat and Belli (2017). Tousignant et al (1986) showed that experimental manipulations and individual differences which increased the amount of time allocated towards reading misleading postevent misinformationa proxy measure for attentionwas associated with reduced levels of misinformation susceptibility.…”

“…Lane (2006)'s findings were supported by Rivardo et al (2011), who showed individual differences in the level of attention during event encoding to be positively related to accurate event memory and reduced levels of false event memory susceptibility. Finally, Kiat and Belli (2017) focused their investigation on the memory retrieval phase of the misinformation paradigm and found evidence indicating that differences in the level of attentional response to recognition cues during this stage could be used to differentiate true and false perceptual event memory responses.…”

“…The target sample size was estimated using empirical power simulation in SAS 9.3 (Zhao & Li, 2012) with behavioral parameters observed in data from a prior investigation utilizing these materials (Kiat & Belli, 2017) and evoked response potential (ERP) data from an oddball dataset collected using the same equipment utilized in this investigation (Kiat 2018). With these parameters, 1,000 simulated datasets were simulated for ten potential target sample sizes (10-40 in increments of five) for target effect sizes between r = .25 and r = .75.…”

“…Responses given perceptual attributions (i.e., BSeen^and BSeen and Read^responses) are the critical response categories focused on in all subsequent analyses. This focus draws on prior source monitoring-focused investigations of misinformation susceptibility to originally presented visual information (Belli et al, 1994;Higham, 1998;Kiat & Belli, 2017;Mitchell, Johnson, & Mather, 2003). BSeen^and BSeen and Read^source attributions are of primary interest in this study as they represent accurate visual perceptual source attributions for event items and inaccurate visual perceptual source misattributions of misinformation content.…”