Looking for answers in all the wrong places: How testing facilitates learning of misinformation

• We examined the mechanism underlying retrieval-enhanced eyewitness suggestibility.
• Test questions directed attention to relevant details in a post-event narrative.
• Attention was greatest when initial retrieval and post-test details conflicted.
• These factors enhanced learning of misleading details presented in the narrative.

Research has consistently demonstrated that taking a test prior to receiving misleading information increases eyewitness suggestibility (Chan, Thomas, & Bulevich, 2009). Retrieval Enhanced Suggestibility (RES) is characterized by two typical findings: (1) reduced access to the originally witnessed event, which has been contextualized within a reconsolidation framework (e.g., Chan & LaPaglia, 2013), and (2) increased production of misleading post-test narrative details, which has been discussed as an example of test-potentiated learning (Gordon & Thomas, 2014). The present study focused on this latter finding, and examined attention as a potential factor moderating the relationship between initial testing and narrative detail production. We hypothesized that initial testing would influence endogenous attention allocation to details in the post-event narrative, thereby impacting narrative learning. We found that compared to participants who did not take an initial test, participants who took an initial test focused efforts on processing narrative details that were directly relevant to initial test questions, and this differential attention allocation was directly related to final test misinformation production. These experiments provide support for the view that testing enhances susceptibility to misinformation by potentiating learning of post-event information. In addition, the present findings support the conclusion that initial test questions and answers function as endogenous cues to direct attention during post-test learning.