Essay On Post Event Information

Post Event Information
Post event information is information that has been provided to an individual after they have witnessed an event. Misleading (incorrect) post event information can dramatically alter a person’s recollection of events (Loftus, 1992), and is often referred to as the ‘misinformation effect’ (Loftus, 2005). Misinformation can cause serious errors in recollection, information can be given deliberately or, more commonly, accidentally. This may happen through police interviews or general enquiries after the witnessed event has taken place. A prime example of this can be found in Gabbert et al., (2003) study. Gabbert investigated the effect of post event discussion on the accuracy of eye witness testimony; where participants

This highlights the issue of post event information, and how easily it can sway an individual’s recollection of events. Gabbert et al (2004) further looked into this, in this study participants viewed a crime video and were later exposed to four pieces of misinformation about it; presented by a confederate or in a written narrative. Gabbert found that participants were less accurate in recall after they received misinformation, and misinformation given socially was significantly more misleading. Further studies for this misinformation effect comes from Loftus, Miller and Burns (1978), here participants (undergraduate students) watched a slide show of a car driving and then hitting a pedestrian. Some participants were then asked the leading question “how fast was the car travelling when it passed the yield sign?”, this was a misleading question; the original image was actually a stop sign. Later subjects were shown pairs of slides (one pair were the original slide with the stop sign, the second pair was a replacement slide containing a yield sign). Participants were then asked which pair they had previously seen; those who were asked about the yield sign were likely to pick the yield slide, when