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Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review

Maryanne Brassil, Cian O’Mahony, Ciara M. Greene

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Swansea University Author: Maryanne Brassil

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DOI (Published version): 10.3758/s13423-024-02512-5

Abstract

The fact that memories can be distorted by post-event misinformation has cast considerable doubt over the dependability of eyewitness evidence in legal contexts. However, despite its adverse practical implications, the misinformation effect is likely an unavoidable distortion stemming from the recon...

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Published in: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
ISSN: 1069-9384 1531-5320
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2024
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67725
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first_indexed 2024-10-23T13:46:39Z
last_indexed 2024-10-23T13:46:39Z
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spelling v2 67725 2024-09-18 Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review 03fdf039976d8c80ab6110ef53aeadcb Maryanne Brassil Maryanne Brassil true false 2024-09-18 HRCL The fact that memories can be distorted by post-event misinformation has cast considerable doubt over the dependability of eyewitness evidence in legal contexts. However, despite its adverse practical implications, the misinformation effect is likely an unavoidable distortion stemming from the reconstructive nature of episodic memory. Certain cognitive abilities have been reported to offer protection against misinformation, suggesting that mechanisms aside from episodic memory may also be underpinning this type of memory distortion. The purpose of this review was to collate findings of associations between eyewitness misinformation susceptibility and individual differences in cognitive ability in adults aged 18 and over. Nine studies met the eligibility criteria for this review, including 23 distinct associations. Using a narrative synthesis, three categories of cognitive ability were identified as influencing susceptibility to misinformation: general intelligence and reasoning, perceptual abilities, and memory abilities. Across almost all categories, higher levels of ability were associated with reduced susceptibility to misinformation. While there is no indication that any one trait provides total immunity to the misinformation effect, there is a reasonable amount of evidence to suggest that several cognitive abilities create variance in individual levels of susceptibility. Future research should investigate not only if but how these cognitive abilities protect against misinformation distortions, for example, by contributing to more detailed encoding of the memory, enhancing discrepancy detection in the face of post-event misinformation, or improving source-monitoring during an eyewitness memory test. Journal Article Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review 0 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 1069-9384 1531-5320 Misinformation; Eyewitness memory; Individual differences; Cognitive abilities 2 5 2024 2024-05-02 10.3758/s13423-024-02512-5 COLLEGE NANME Hillary Rodham Clinton Law School COLLEGE CODE HRCL Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee Open Access funding provided by the IReL Consortium. MB is an awardee of the Irish Research Council’s Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, which supported this work. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. 2024-10-23T14:50:05.7298815 2024-09-18T13:42:38.0393425 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law Maryanne Brassil 1 Cian O’Mahony 2 Ciara M. Greene 3 67725__32684__7ea8928111764da8a5561730855a7044.pdf 67725.VoR.pdf 2024-10-23T14:47:25.1359285 Output 1125306 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review
spellingShingle Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review
Maryanne Brassil
title_short Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review
title_full Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review
title_fullStr Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review
title_full_unstemmed Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review
title_sort Do cognitive abilities reduce eyewitness susceptibility to the misinformation effect? A systematic review
author_id_str_mv 03fdf039976d8c80ab6110ef53aeadcb
author_id_fullname_str_mv 03fdf039976d8c80ab6110ef53aeadcb_***_Maryanne Brassil
author Maryanne Brassil
author2 Maryanne Brassil
Cian O’Mahony
Ciara M. Greene
format Journal article
container_title Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review
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publishDate 2024
institution Swansea University
issn 1069-9384
1531-5320
doi_str_mv 10.3758/s13423-024-02512-5
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law
document_store_str 1
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description The fact that memories can be distorted by post-event misinformation has cast considerable doubt over the dependability of eyewitness evidence in legal contexts. However, despite its adverse practical implications, the misinformation effect is likely an unavoidable distortion stemming from the reconstructive nature of episodic memory. Certain cognitive abilities have been reported to offer protection against misinformation, suggesting that mechanisms aside from episodic memory may also be underpinning this type of memory distortion. The purpose of this review was to collate findings of associations between eyewitness misinformation susceptibility and individual differences in cognitive ability in adults aged 18 and over. Nine studies met the eligibility criteria for this review, including 23 distinct associations. Using a narrative synthesis, three categories of cognitive ability were identified as influencing susceptibility to misinformation: general intelligence and reasoning, perceptual abilities, and memory abilities. Across almost all categories, higher levels of ability were associated with reduced susceptibility to misinformation. While there is no indication that any one trait provides total immunity to the misinformation effect, there is a reasonable amount of evidence to suggest that several cognitive abilities create variance in individual levels of susceptibility. Future research should investigate not only if but how these cognitive abilities protect against misinformation distortions, for example, by contributing to more detailed encoding of the memory, enhancing discrepancy detection in the face of post-event misinformation, or improving source-monitoring during an eyewitness memory test.
published_date 2024-05-02T14:50:03Z
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