Susceptibility to misinformation in witnesses with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and trauma exposure

Abstract Within the general population, approximately 6% of people will have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 15% will have depression at one point in their life, yet little is known about how symptoms of PTSD and depression affect people’s ability to accurately report details of a witnessed traumatic event. Studies exploring the relationship between psychopathology and eyewitness memory have primarily focussed on memory distortions that arise from internal cognitive processes (i.e. spreading activation). We examined the relationship between psychopathology and memory distortions resulting from external suggestion (i.e. misinformation). A total of 327 community participants completed measures of PTSD symptoms, depression symptoms, and exposure to traumatic events before viewing a film depicting a graphic car accident and being exposed to misinformation. Participants then completed cued recall and recognition memory tests. While higher PTSD symptomology was associated with poorer overall memory performance, the association between PTSD symptomology and the misinformation effect was not significant. Previous trauma exposure was also not significantly associated with the misinformation effect. However, for participants who reported no prior exposure to a transportation accident, the misinformation effect decreased as depression symptom scores increased. By contrast, for participants who reported prior exposure to a transportation accident, the misinformation effect remained stable across depression symptom scores. These results advance theory on psychopathology and memory distortions by revealing that prevailing frameworks (e.g. associative activation theory) may need further refining to better account for the complex associations between psychopathology and misinformation susceptibility. The results have practical implications for clinical and forensic settings.