Habitual Susceptibility to Misinformation and Individual Differences in Eyewitness Memory

These articles reminded of Elizabeth Loftus’s address at AP-LS. She discussed her research on false memories and post event information. I think that post event information is very important to examine when it comes to memory processes because it has the potential to influence potential eyewitnesses’ recollection of events. I thought all of the articles were interesting and touched on different areas of interest.
The Tomes and Katz (1997) article was interesting to me because they actually controlled for gender differences with the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). I had not heard of research doing this before, so that was something I found interesting to read about. I was surprised when they mentioned that earlier research has found gender differences in remembering events. I had not seen this done before, so I appreciated them trying to measure and control for gender differences. I’m not sure I would have used the Bem Inventory because it is an older measure that may need to be updated. I believe that there are many other measures could be used instead, but the measure that they used still works for their purposes. The Wright, Loftus, and Hall (2001) article was also really interesting because they found that they could inhibit memories, which I found intriguing. Their design seemed well controlled, and I liked how they tested post event information. They also touch on applications of their research, which involves police investigations, so I think that is particularly important to mention.
Overall, I thought the articles brought up interesting points with regard to post-event information. The second guesses article also was something I enjoyed reading, but their methodology was a little strange. Post-event information is another important area of research that needs to be further examined because of its potential implications for eyewitness identification.

HC