The Illusory Truth Effect (ITE) is a cognitive bias wherein participants rate repeated statements as more truthful relative to new statements. Although this effect may be less adaptive in our current media climate, where repeated information can circulate easily, few studies have examined how to mitigate or reduce it. In the current studies, we…

This study examined if the number of interruptions caused by interesting side notes in learning text is critical for the detrimental effect that is generally found when such seductive details are included, and consequently, if this effect can be mitigated by grouping these details together instead of interspersing them. Results confirmed that…

Construal level theory states that future events that are nearer in the future and events that are more likely to happen have lower construal levels, and therefore have less detail, than events that are further away and/or less likely to happen. Consistent with this theory, the number of details in a statement can be a moderately good cue to…

We examined potentially selective offloading decisions when the external store has a limited capacity and how the surprising unavailability of offloaded information influences subsequent offloading decision-making and memory. In three experiments, learners were presented with to-be-remembered words paired with point values counting towards their…

Generated information is better recognized and recalled than information that is read. This generation effect has been replicated several times for different types of material, including texts. Perhaps the most influential demonstration is by McDaniel, Einstein, Dunay, and Cobb ("Journal of Memory and Language," 1986, 25(6), 645-656;…

This study investigates the effect of survey order in measuring self-reported cognitive load. Understanding how survey order influences responses is crucial, but it has been largely overlooked in the context of cognitive load. Using a 2 × 2 experimental design with 319 high school students, the study manipulated intrinsic cognitive load (ICL)…

Audio description (AD) plays a crucial role in making audiovisual media accessible to people with a visual impairment, enhancing their experience and understanding. This study employs an event segmentation task to examine how people without sight perceive and segment narrative events in films with AD, compared to sighted viewers without AD. Two AD…

Effective cognitive learning strategies are beneficial for learning and long-term retention. However, higher education students often rely on surface-level strategies like reading and underlining. Interventions to support effective cognitive strategy use have addressed knowledge, beliefs, planning, and commitment. This latter aspect and its…

The manuscript describes an experimental investigation of a technique that might reduce memory conformity: the reinforced self-affirmation procedure (RSA). While previous studies have already demonstrated the RSA's effectiveness in reducing other memory distortions (e.g., the misinformation effect and interrogative suggestibility), this has not…

In the present research, we used the misinformation paradigm to investigate the effects of participants' mood during encoding of an event, and the emotional content of the event on false memory. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three mood-induction groups (positive, negative, or neutral) and they all watched a video of an event that…

Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects the balance of the autonomic nervous system and is associated with cognitive functions. However, its relationship with the process related to making a decision is unclear. This systematic review aims to analyze the relationship between HRV and decision-making. A qualitative analysis was conducted according to…

Research on involuntary autobiographical memories has made significant progress over the past two decades. One question in this area concerns whether involuntary memories are functional, or merely cognitive failures. Survey methods have been used to assess the question of involuntary memory functionality, but with mixed results, with some…

Manga, a Japanese comic, conveys contextual information about underlying stories based on the expression of a mixture of textual and pictorial elements. Two experiments were designed to assess whether individuals' eye movements when reading manga were consistent, independent of the specific materials, and stable over time. Experiment 1 examined…

Smartphones are a ubiquitous part of many people's lives, but little is known about their impact on everyday thought processes. Here we introduce the "spontaneous smartphone checking scale" (SSCS)--which measures the tendency to direct attention toward one's smartphone, unpreceded by external prompts (e.g., notifications, or alerts) and…

Research suggests that a number of cognitive processes--including pattern perception, intentionality bias, proportionality bias, and confirmation bias--may underlie belief in a conspiracy theory. However, there are reasons to believe that conspiracy theory beliefs also depend in part on a failure to understand the probability of actual events…