Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2011 Jan;37(1):270-6. doi: 10.1037/a0021323.
The illusion of truth is traditionally described as the increase in perceived validity of statements when they are repeated (Hasher, Goldstein, & Toppino, 1977). However, subsequent work has demonstrated that the effect can arise due to the increased familiarity or fluency afforded by repetition and not necessarily to repetition per se. We examine the case of information retrieved from memory. Recently experienced information is expected to be subsequently reexperienced as more fluent and familiar than novel information (Jacoby, 1983; Jacoby & Dallas, 1981). Therefore, the possibility exists that information retrieved from memory, because it is subjectively re-experienced at retrieval, would be more fluent or familiar than when it was first learned and would thus lead to an increase in perceived validity. Using a method to indirectly poll the perceived truth of factual statements, our experiment demonstrated that information retrieved from memory does indeed give rise to an illusion of truth. The effect was larger than when statements were explicitly repeated twice and was of comparable size to when statements were repeated 4 times. We conclude that memory retrieval is a powerful method for increasing the perceived validity of statements (and subsequent illusion of truth) and that the illusion of truth is a robust effect that can be observed even without directly polling the factual statements in question.
传统上，人们将真实性错觉描述为陈述在被重复时其被感知的有效性增加（Hasher、Goldstein 和 Toppino，1977）。然而，随后的研究表明，这种效应可能是由于重复带来的熟悉度或流畅度的增加而产生的，而不一定是重复本身。我们考察了从记忆中检索信息的情况。最近经历的信息预计会比新信息更流畅和熟悉（Jacoby，1983；Jacoby 和 Dallas，1981）。因此，存在这样一种可能性，即从记忆中检索到的信息，因为它在检索时被主观地重新体验，会比第一次学习时更流畅或熟悉，从而导致感知有效性的增加。我们使用一种间接调查事实陈述感知真实性的方法进行实验，结果表明，从记忆中检索到的信息确实会产生真实性错觉。这种效果比陈述被明确重复两次时更大，与陈述被重复 4 次时的效果相当。我们得出结论，记忆检索是一种增强陈述感知有效性（以及随后的真实性错觉）的有力方法，即使不直接调查所涉及的事实陈述，也可以观察到真实性错觉这一稳健效应。
