Abstract
When people receive descriptions or doctored photos of events that never happened, they often come to remember those events. But if people receive both a description and a doctored photo, does the order in which they receive the information matter? We asked people to consider a description and a doctored photograph of a childhood hot air balloon ride, and we varied which medium they saw first. People who saw a description first reported more false images and memories than did people who saw a photo first, a result that fits with an anchoring account of false childhood memories.
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Wade, K.A., Garry, M., Nash, R.A. et al. Anchoring effects in the development of false childhood memories. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 17, 66–72 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.66
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.66