Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

2590

Date

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Psychology

Committee Chair

Stephanie Huette

Committee Member

Jason Braasch

Committee Member

Craig Stewart

Abstract

The current study investigated how language changes the meaning of facts. Much is known about the acquiring of misconceptions, but little is known about how subtle changes in language affect the retrieval of accurate facts and misconceptions. Participants read vignettes and were exposed to four different kinds of texts that varied by affirmative or negated and whether the fact was true or false. After participants read several of these facts, their eye movements were tracked in a visual world paradigm with 4 written plausible answers on the screen in each corner to choose from. Fixations to each kind of response were recorded and presence of misinformation was found to temper the processing of misconceptions and led to an observed suppression of inaccurate information. Mechanisms of processing true and false concepts and the interplay between language and conceptual formation are discussed.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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