Interesting Study on the Illusion of Truth Effect and Eyewitness Suggestibility

For those of you interested by the discussion of the illusion of truth effect in Episode 1 of Season 2 of Undisclosed, here’s an interesting study about the illusion of truth effect and eyewitness suggestibility: (Download Illusion of Truth Study). Here is the abstract:

The purpose of the present study was to extend research on repetition and illusory truth to the domain of eyewitness suggestibility. Specifically, we assessed whether repeated exposure to suggestion, relative to a single exposure, facilitates the creation of false memory for suggested events. After viewing a video of a burglary, subjects were asked questions containing misleading suggestions, some of which were repeated. Their memory for the source of the suggestions was tested. The results show that following repeated (relative to a single) exposure to suggestion, subjects were more likely to (a) claim with high confidence that they remembered the suggested events from the video (Experiment 1) and (b) claim that they consciously recollected witnessing the suggested events (Experiment 2). The effects of repeated exposure were highly reliable and were observed over retention intervals as long as 1 week.

-CM