Proactive and retroactive effects of negative suggestion.

The negative effects of false information presented either prior to (proactive interference; PI) or following (retroactive interference; RI) true information was examined with word definitions (Experiment 1) and trivia facts (Experiment 2). Participants were explicitly aware of which information was true and false when shown, and true-false discrimination was evaluated via multiple-choice tests. Negative suggestion, defined as poorer performance on interference items than noninterference (control) items, consistently occurred when the wrong information followed the correct information (RI) but not when it preceded the correct information (PI). These effects did not change as a function of retention interval (immediate, 1 week, or 3 weeks) or number of incorrect alternatives (1 or 3). Implications of this outcome for experiencing incorrect information in both academic and nonacademic situations are considered.

Brown AS, Brown CM, Mosbacher JL, Dryden WE. Department of Psychology, Dedman College, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA. abrown@smu.edu