How Lie's Become Truth

Article: When a Lie Becomes Memory’s Truth
By Elizabeth F. Loftus

It has been shown, that providing misleading information to the witness of an event, can actually change what a person believes he or she saw. Current research is trying to understand how people can be “tricked” into thinking they saw something which they actually didn’t. A simple paradigm has been used to study this phenomenon - first, participants witness an event; next, half are exposed to misleading, false information; finally, all participants are asked what they saw. Many different types of experiments have been performed using this method. Again and again, it is found that those people given misleading information seem to adopt it as their memory - known as the misinformation effect.

Current research has focused on four major aspects of this effect.
1) It has been found that a longer interval between the event and the misinformation, increases false memory - memory is more likely to be affected when time allows the original memory to fade.
2) The way the false information is provided is also important. Subtle misinformation is more effective at altering memory.
3) People are also able to resist the effect when they are warned of the possibility of misinformation.
4) It has also been found that age plays a factor in this effect. Young children are more commonly susceptible to misinformation. The same is found for participants over the age of 65.

Researchers have also been interested in the original memory - where does it go? One possibility is that misinformation could physically change the previously formed memory – known as trace impairment. Another possibility is that misinformation makes the original memory less accessible, without actually changing it – retrieval impairment.

It has been concluded that misinformation can actually lead people to believe that they saw things they never did. Participants seem to really believe their memories, even though they are false. Further research is required to better understand people’s recollections. These findings are especially important for the legal field when we consider the use of eye-witness testimony.