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Abstract Misinformation exposure can cause inaccurate beliefs and memories. These unwanted outcomes can be mitigated when misinformation reminders—veracity-labeled statements that repeat earlier-read false information—appear before corrections with true information. The present experiment used eye tracking to examine the role of attention while encoding corrective details in the beneficial effects of reminder-based corrections. Participants read headlines in a belief-updating task that included a within-subjects manipulation of correction format. They first rated the familiarity and veracity of true and false headlines (Phase 1). Then, they read true headlines that corrected false headlines or affirmed true headlines (Phase 2). The true headlines appeared (1) without veracity labels, (2) with veracity labels, or (3) with misinformation reminders and veracity labels. Finally, participants re-rated the veracity of the Phase 1 headlines and rated their memory for whether those headlines were corrected in Phase 2 (Phase 3). Reminder-based corrections led to the greatest reduction in false beliefs, best high confidence recognition of corrections, and earliest eye fixations to the true details of corrections during encoding in Phase 2. Corrections remembered with the highest confidence rating were associated with more and earlier fixations to true details in correction statements in Phase 2. Collectively, these results suggest that misinformation reminders directed attention to corrective details, which improved encoding and subsequent memory for veracity information. These results have applied implications in suggesting that optimal correction formats should include features that direct attention to, and thus support encoding of, the contrast between false and true information. 

Abstract The efficacy of fake news corrections in improving memory and belief accuracy may depend on how often adults see false information before it is corrected. Two experiments tested the competing predictions that repeating fake news before corrections will either impair or improve memory and belief accuracy. These experiments also examined whether fake news exposure effects would differ for younger and older adults due to age-related differences in the recollection of contextual details. Younger and older adults read real and fake news headlines that appeared once or thrice. Next, they identified fake news corrections among real news headlines. Later, recognition and cued recall tests assessed memory for real news, fake news, if corrections occurred, and beliefs in retrieved details. Repeating fake news increased detection and remembering of corrections, correct real news retrieval, and erroneous fake news retrieval. No age differences emerged for detection of corrections, but younger adults remembered corrections better than older adults. At test, correct fake news retrieval for earlier-detected corrections was associated with better real news retrieval. This benefit did not differ between age groups in recognition but was greater for younger than older adults in cued recall. When detected corrections were not remembered at test, repeated fake news increased memory errors. Overall, both age groups believed correctly retrieved real news more than erroneously retrieved fake news to a similar degree. These findings suggest that fake news repetition effects on subsequent memory accuracy depended on age differences in recollection-based retrieval of fake news and that it was corrected.