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Acceptance and Confidence of Central and Peripheral Misinformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Karlos Luna  and
Malen Migueles
Karlos Luna*
Affiliation:
Universidad del País Vasco (Spain)
Malen Migueles
Affiliation:
Universidad del País Vasco (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Karlos Luna, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del País Vasco; Avda. Tolosa, 70, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa (Spain). E-mail: karlos.luna@ehu.es
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Abstract

We examined the memory for central and peripheral information concerning a crime and the acceptance of false information. We also studied eyewitnesses' confidence in their memory. Participants were shown a video depicting a bank robbery and a questionnaire was used to introduce false central and peripheral information. The next day the participants completed a recognition task in which they rated the confidence of their responses. Performance was better for central information and participants registered more false alarms for peripheral contents. The cognitive system's limited attentional capacity and the greater information capacity of central elements may facilitate processing the more important information. The presentation of misinformation seriously impaired eyewitness memory by prompting a more lenient response criterion. Participants were more confident with central than with peripheral information. Eyewitness memory is easily distorted in peripheral aspects but it is more difficult to make mistakes with central information. However, when false information is introduced, errors in central information can be accompanied by high confidence, thus rendering them credible and legally serious.

Estudiamos la aceptación de información falsa y la memoria de contenidos centrales y periféricos sobre un crimen. Además, también nos interesamos por la confianza que los testigos tienen en su memoria. Los participantes vieron un vídeo sobre un robo a un banco, inmediatamente después completaron un cuestionario con preguntas en las que se introdujo información falsa sobre contenidos centrales y periféricos y, un día después, completaron una prueba de reconocimiento en la que también indicaron su confianza en la respuesta. El rendimiento fue mejor con contenidos centrales y hubo más falsas alarmas con periféricos. Este resultado puede explicarse a partir de la limitada capacidad atencional del sistema cognitivo y de la mayor capacidad informativa de los contenidos centrales, que puede promover su procesamiento preferencial. La presentación de información falsa empeoró el testimonio al provocar un criterio de respuesta más laxo y la confianza fue mayor ante contenidos centrales que periféricos. Se concluye que es fácil alterar la memoria de un testigo sobre aspectos periféricos, pero es más difícil con aspectos centrales. Sin embargo, cuando se presenta información falsa, los errores con información central pueden evaluarse con confianza alta, lo que los haría potencialmente creíbles y peligrosos en el sistema judicial.

Keywords

eyewitness memoryfalse memoriesmisinformation paradigmcentral and peripheral informationconfidencememoria de testigosfalsas memoriasparadigma de la información engañosainformación central y periféricaconfianza
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , November 2009 , pp. 405 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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