Operational debriefing and psychological debriefing both involve groups of participants (typically from the emergency services) discussing a critical incident. Research on post‐incident debriefing has previously raised concerns over the likelihood that this discussion may affect not only psychological responses, but also memory integrity. It is possible that discussion in this setting could increase susceptibility to the misinformation effect. This paper seeks to address these issues.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether including a warning to the debriefing instructions about the possibility of memory contamination could reduce the misinformation effect. Participants viewed a stressful film, and were assigned to one of three conditions: debriefing with standard instructions, debriefing with a memory warning, or an individual recall control condition. Free recall memory and distress for the film were assessed.
Results indicate that participants in both debriefing conditions reported significantly more misinformation than those who did not participate in a discussion. Additionally it was found that the warning of memory contamination did not diminish the misinformation effect.
These findings are discussed with suggestions for the future of debriefing, with a particular focus on the emergency services.
