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Concept information

phenomenon > metamemory phenomenon > dud-alternative effect

Preferred term

dud-alternative effect  

Definition

  • A metamemory phenomenon observed in a multiple-choice memory task, when including an implausible alternative increases the confidence level attributed to the choice of a plausible alternative, even if the latter is not the correct answer.

Broader concept

Related concepts

Synonym(s)

  • dud effect

Belongs to group

Bibliographic citation(s)

  • • Charman, S. D., Wells, G. L., & Joy, S. W. (2011). The dud effect: Adding highly dissimilar fillers increases confidence in lineup identifications. Law and Human Behavior, 35(6), 479-500. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-010-9261-1https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-010-9261-1">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-010-9261-1>

    • Document type: empirical study

    • Access: closed

  • • Hanczakowski, M., Zawadzka, K., & Higham, P. A. (2014). The dud-alternative effect in memory for associations: Putting confidence into local context. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21(2), 543-548. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0497-xhttps://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0497-x">https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0497-x>

    • Document type: empirical study

    • Access: open

  • • Windschitl, P. D., & Chambers, J. R. (2004). The dud-alternative effect in likelihood judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30(1), 198-215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.30.1.198https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.30.1.198">https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.30.1.198>

    • Document type: empirical study

    • Access: closed

Creator

  • Frank Arnould

Example

  • For example, Charman, Wells & Joy (2011) asked participants in their experiments to view a crime scene. Then, they were asked to identify the culprit in a police lineup. In fact, the culprit was not presented in the lineup. The results showed that the presence of implausible persons in the lineup (because their physical appearance was visually very different from that of the perpetrator) increased participants' confidence in identifying the perpetrator when they chose a plausible person (i.e. one who looked like the perpetrator).

In other languages

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-KPKZ36T6-N

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