Biomaterial Database

Reversing the truth effect: learning the interpretation of processing fluency in judgments of truth. 2007

Christian Unkelbach

Psychologisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. christian.unkelbach@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de

Repeated statements receive higher truth ratings than new statements. Given that repetition leads to greater experienced processing fluency, the author proposes that fluency is used in truth judgments according to its ecological validity. Thus, the truth effect occurs because people learn that fluency and truth tend to be positively correlated. Three experiments tested this notion. Experiment 1 replicated the truth effect by directly manipulating processing fluency; Experiment 2 reversed the effect by manipulating the correlation between fluency and truth in a learning phase. Experiment 3 generalized this reversal by showing a transfer of a negative correlation between perceptual fluency (due to color contrast) and truth to truth judgments when fluency is due to prior exposure (i.e., repetition).

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007600	Judgment	The process of discovering or asserting an objective or intrinsic relation between two objects or concepts; a faculty or power that enables a person to make judgments; the process of bringing to light and asserting the implicit meaning of a concept; a critical evaluation of a person or situation.	Judgement,Judgements,Judgments
D007858	Learning	Relatively permanent change in behavior that is the result of past experience or practice. The concept includes the acquisition of knowledge.	Phenomenography
D008297	Male		Males
D011930	Reaction Time	The time from the onset of a stimulus until a response is observed.	Response Latency,Response Speed,Response Time,Latency, Response,Reaction Times,Response Latencies,Response Times,Speed, Response,Speeds, Response
D003463	Cues	Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond.	Cue
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014342	Truth Disclosure	Truthful revelation of information, specifically when the information disclosed is likely to be psychologically painful ("bad news") to the recipient (e.g., revelation to a patient or a patient's family of the patient's DIAGNOSIS or PROGNOSIS) or embarrassing to the teller (e.g., revelation of medical errors).	Disclosure, Truth,Disclosure, Error,Disclosures, Error,Disclosures, Truth,Error Disclosure,Error Disclosures,Truth Disclosures