Hartmut Blank

Eyewitnesses may be exposed to multiple pieces of misinformation concerning the same original detail. The two misleading details contradicting each other enable detecting a discrepancy between them, which, given that only one of them can be true, should reduce credibility of the misinformation source(s) and improve reporting. This, however, can only happen at sufficiently high levels of misinformation availability (i.e., encoding of misinformation and its subsequent accessibility): with low misinformation availability, double misinformation should instead increase the misinformation effect, providing multiple chances of yielding to misinformation. To test these predictions, we experimentally manipulated misinformation availability (high vs. low) and presented double or single misinformation. However, double versus single misinformation presentation did not affect performance or interact with misinformation availability and participants frequently reported misinformation while fully detecting discrepancies between items. Therefore, discrepancy detection alone may not be sufficient in reducing the misinformation effect, with various decision‐making processes involved in reporting.

When people estimate the quantities of objects (e.g., country populations), are then presented with the objects' actual quantities, and subsequently asked to remember their initial estimates, responses are often distorted towards the actual quantities. This hindsight bias-traditionally considered to reflect a cognitive error-has more recently been proposed to result from adaptive knowledge updating. But how to conceptualize such knowledge-updating processes and their potentially beneficial consequences? Here, we provide a framework that conceptualizes knowledge updating in the context of hindsight bias in real-world estimation by connecting it with research on seeding effects-improvements in people's estimation accuracy after exposure to numerical facts. This integrative perspective highlights a previously neglected facet of knowledge updating, namely, recalibration of metric domain knowledge, which can be expected to lead to transfer learning and thus improve estimation for objects from a domain more generally. We develop an experimental paradigm to investigate the association of hindsight bias with improved estimation accuracy. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that the classical approach to induce hindsight bias indeed produces transfer learning. In Experiment 2, we provide evidence for the novel prediction that hindsight bias can be triggered via transfer learning; this establishes a direct link from knowledge updating to hindsight bias. Our work integrates two prominent but previously unconnected research programs on the effects of knowledge updating in real-world estimation and supports the notion that hindsight bias is driven by adaptive learning processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

This special issue honours James Ost’s (1973–2019) contributions to our understanding of false and distorted remembering. In our editorial, we introduce some of James’ distinctive research themes including the experiences of people who retract “recovered” memories, social (e.g., co-witness and interviewer influence) and personality influences on false remembering, the nature of false remembering itself (e.g., different types of false memories; false memories vs. false beliefs), public understanding of (false) memory, and a historical link to the work of Frederic Bartlett. We illustrate these themes through a number of key publications. The unifying thread behind James’ work is his core interest in false/distorted remembering in real-life (typically high-stake) situations, in line with his engagement with the British False Memory Society and his role as an expert witness in court trials. The articles included in this special issue elaborate on the research themes to which James devoted his career and his curiosity.

We welcome Belli's (Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2022, 36, 477) comments on our double misinformation research and the opportunity to discuss the involved processes. We agree that our studies do not rule out (some of) the interference mechanisms specified by Belli (Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2022, 36, 477)—because they were never designed for this purpose. Instead, the logic of our studies is at a molar level, potentially involving different molecular‐level interference or non‐interference mechanisms. We concede that specific interference mechanisms may operate in specific circumstances but maintain that our new research approach—adding further contradictory misinformation on top of existing misinformation to reduce the misinformation effect—does pose a challenge for interference accounts in general.

Significance: Human memory is fallible and malleable. In forensic settings in particular, this poses a challenge because people may falsely remember events with legal implications that never actually happened. Despite an urgent need for remedies, however, research on whether and how rich false autobiographical memories can be reversed under realistic conditions (i.e., using reversal strategies that can be applied in real-world settings) is virtually nonexistent. The present study therefore not only replicates and extends previous demonstrations of false memories but, crucially, documents their reversibility after the fact: Employing two ecologically valid strategies, we show that rich but false autobiographical memories can mostly be undone. Importantly, reversal was specific to false memories (i.e., did not occur for true memories).

Prospective person memory is implicated in searches for missing or wanted individuals. We investigated whether prospective person memory is improved by associating the target of the search with a name and providing photos that reflect variation in the search target's appearance. Participants (N = 242) studied three photographs of each target, taken either at the same event (low variability) or at different events (high variability). For half of the participants, a name was presented alongside the photographs. Both names and high variability photos improved discriminability, suggesting that public appeals for a missing or wanted person should include a name and use images that are representative of the person's variability in appearance across different contexts.

(2020). Special issue to honour James Ost’s contribution to memory psychology. Memory: Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 1-1.