The quality of false memory over time: Is memory for misinformation "remembered" or "known"?

The conscious quality of eyewitness memory for misinformation after differe nt retention intervals was investigated in two experiments. Participants vi ewed computer-projected slides depicting a crime (encoding phase), read a n arrative containing misinformation, and took a recall test about the origin al event. Remember/know judgments were made for each response. A "remember" judgment indicated that the participant vividly recalled seeing a detail i n the encoding phase. A "know" judgment indicated that the participant beli eved that a detail was presented but did not vividly remember it. Generally , misinformation was more likely to be associated with a know judgment than with a remember judgment after a short retention interval. This outcome su ggests that, in many cases, misleading information is judged as having a di fferent subjective quality than memory for actual events. However, over a r elatively long retention interval, misinformation that simply added new inf ormation about the event was more often judged as remembered.