Title:
The misinformation effect and its relation to conformity as a personality construct
Author:
Kristen M. Wright
Thesis Advisor:
Kerri A. Goodwin
Committee Member:
Beth A. Kotchick
Committee Member:
Martin F. Sherman
Committee Member:
James Buckley
Committee Member:
Matthew W. Kirkhart
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2010
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
reformatted digital
Abstract:
Errors in memory and recollection can have wide-ranging and disastrous results, for example when the outcomes of court cases rely heavily on eyewitnesses' memories of events. The goal of the present study was to examine the personality factor of conformity, measured by the Social Conformity vs. Rebelliousness (C) Scale of the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS), as a potential factor related to reliable eyewitness memory versus unreliable eyewitness memory. Discrepancies in the reports of those who have been exposed to differing post-event information, compared to those who have not been exposed to such information, are known as the misinformation effect. McCloskey and Zaragoza (1985a) argued that the biases of misinformation acceptance and demand characteristics account for the misinformation effect. The present study replicated McCloskey and Zaragoza's findings that controls for biases and demand characteristics significantly reduced the misinformation effect using their materials in which 128 participants were shown a series of slides where a crime was committed, read a narrative containing accurate and misleading information about items in the slides, and answered a series of questions about what they had seen in the slides. It was hypothesized that there would be a relation between levels of conformity and eyewitness errors such that high scores on the Conformity scale would be related to responding with more misled answers to the questions in McCloskey and Zaragoza's recognition tests but the data did not support this hypothesis. It was also hypothesized that this relation would be stronger for participants whose questionnaires were from McCloskey and Zaragoza's original-test design than for those whose questionnaires were from McCloskey and Zaragoza's modified-test design which controls for many biases and demand effects. The relations in McCloskey and Zaragoza's original and modified condition were compared and found to be different. Results also failed to support the final hypothesis that the relation between levels of conformity and eyewitness errors on the misinformation effect test would be mediated by eyewitness confidence such that those who score low on the Conformity scale would self-report higher confidence ratings in their answers to misled questions and would be less likely to respond with the misled information from the narrative. Overall, the present study did not show a relation between participants' tendencies to conform or dissent in social situations and susceptibility to misleading information. It is proposed that a clear manipulation where misleading information is presented may often override tendencies to dissent even in those who are identified as nonconformists. Based on the data gathered in the present study, knowing whether or not an eyewitness tends to conform in social situations is not helpful in assessing the reliability of that eyewitness's report. However, the present study does support procedures for gathering eyewitness information that minimize the potential influence of misleading information and investigator expectations on eyewitnesses.
Subject:
Memory
Subject:
Recollection (Psychology)
Subject:
Conformity
Subject:
Comrey Personality Scales
Subject:
Electronic books
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Degree:
Master of Science
Level:
Master
Discipline:
Clinical Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online.
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Identifier:
WrightKM-10
