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Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Mullet, HG; Umanath, S; Marsh, EJ
Published in: Memory & cognition
November 2014

Surprisingly, people incorporate errors into their knowledge bases even when they have the correct knowledge stored in memory (e.g., Fazio, Barber, Rajaram, Ornstein, & Marsh, 2013). We examined whether heightening the accessibility of correct knowledge would protect people from later reproducing misleading information that they encountered in fictional stories. In Experiment 1, participants studied a series of target general knowledge questions and their correct answers either a few minutes (high accessibility of knowledge) or 1 week (low accessibility of knowledge) before exposure to misleading story references. In Experiments 2a and 2b, participants instead retrieved the answers to the target general knowledge questions either a few minutes or 1 week before the rest of the experiment. Reading the relevant knowledge directly before the story-reading phase protected against reproduction of the misleading story answers on a later general knowledge test, but retrieving that same correct information did not. Retrieving stored knowledge from memory might actually enhance the encoding of relevant misinformation.

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Published In

Memory & cognition

DOI

EISSN

1532-5946

ISSN

0090-502X

Publication Date

November 2014

Volume

42

Issue

8

Start / End Page

1239 / 1249

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Time Factors
  • Mental Recall
  • Learning
  • Knowledge
  • Humans
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Adult
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
 

Citation

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Mullet, H. G., Umanath, S., & Marsh, E. J. (2014). Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors. Memory & Cognition, 42(8), 1239–1249. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0437-7
Mullet, Hillary G., Sharda Umanath, and Elizabeth J. Marsh. “Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors.Memory & Cognition 42, no. 8 (November 2014): 1239–49. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0437-7.
Mullet HG, Umanath S, Marsh EJ. Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors. Memory & cognition. 2014 Nov;42(8):1239–49.
Mullet, Hillary G., et al. “Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors.Memory & Cognition, vol. 42, no. 8, Nov. 2014, pp. 1239–49. Epmc, doi:10.3758/s13421-014-0437-7.
Mullet HG, Umanath S, Marsh EJ. Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors. Memory & cognition. 2014 Nov;42(8):1239–1249.
Journal cover image

Published In

Memory & cognition

DOI

EISSN

1532-5946

ISSN

0090-502X

Publication Date

November 2014

Volume

42

Issue

8

Start / End Page

1239 / 1249

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Time Factors
  • Mental Recall
  • Learning
  • Knowledge
  • Humans
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Adult
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology