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11:00 - 12:30
Parallel sessions 5
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11:00 - 12:30
Room: HSZ - N5
Chair/s:
Désirée Schönung, Nikoletta Symeonidou
Source memory research aims at understanding how people remember the origin of information (e.g., Where did I read the latest news?). This double symposium brings together findings of both basic (Part 1) and more applied (Part 2) source memory research. Building on the theoretical and methodological framework introduced in Part I, this second part elucidates the important role of source memory in more applied contexts.
Luise Metzger opens the session with the project “Source Memory for AI- vs. Human-Generated Online Content”, which aims to investigate whether people spontaneously categorize and recall web content as human- or AI-generated. The project further explores whether people who are less trusting toward AI show better source discrimination.
Oktay Ülker continues with “The Source of My Source: Effects of Learning Partner Expertise on Source Memory in Collaborative Learning”. This research examines how well individuals remember which source (trustworthy, untrustworthy, no source) their study partner cited in the collaboration phase.  By additionally varying the expertise (high vs. low) of the learning partner, the study also tests schema-incongruency effects in source memory.
Relatedly, in “Advice Taking on Social Media: The Influence of Source Memory for Advisor Trustworthiness on Advice Weighting” Johanna Höhs focuses on how well people remember the trustworthiness of advisors encountered on social media. The study also addresses whether enhanced source memory supports adaptive advice taking – favoring trustworthy over untrustworthy advisors.
Nikoletta Symeonidou then bridges to source-memory research in specific populations. Focusing on older adults in her talk “Effects of Negative Age Stereotypes on Source Memory”, she presents findings showing that activating negative age stereotypes can impair source memory in older adults. These results highlight the importance of creating age-fair testing.
Extending the discussion to (sub)clinical populations, Isabel Porstein concludes the session with “Source Monitoring Along the Continuum of Psychosis: Insights from Schizotypy.” Her research explores how subclinical schizotypy dimensions relate to source memory and source guessing biases, particularly regarding reality-monitoring impairments, which are often discussed as mechanism underlying hallucinations.
The second session concludes with a general discussion, highlighting the main findings and potential implications of all contributions from a basic and applied perspective.
Submission 285
Advice Taking on Social Media: The Influence of Source Memory for Advisor Trustworthiness on Advice Weighting
SymposiumTalk-03
Presented by: Johanna M. Höhs
Johanna M. Höhs, Mandy Hütter
University of Tübingen, Germany
Social media platforms such as Instagram or TikTok have become popular sources for advice. The extension of the advisor environment on social media offers new opportunities for access to high-quality advice on specialized topics. However, it also bares the risk of greater access to low-credible advisor sources (e.g., advisor sources with high expertise on specialized topics with vested interest to share advice). In two experiments, we assess people’s sensitivity to advisor trustworthiness in the social media environment through a source memory lens. Following the typical advice taking paradigm, participants first provided their own estimates on health-related questions before being exposed to advice on these questions in the form of social media posts. The advice stemmed from a trustworthy or an untrustworthy advisor. Afterwards, participants completed a surprise source memory task in which they had to classify presented health advice in social media posts as stemming from one of the advisors or new. Finally, participants provided their final estimates on the health questions. In Experiment 1, we found no significant differences in source memory between trustworthy and untrustworthy advisors but that an increase in source memory increases the weighting of advice from the trustworthy source. Experiment 2 consists in a replication of these findings using a stronger manipulation of vested interest. Overall, the present research moves from the highly controlled laboratory environment towards real-life advice taking settings, thereby demonstrating source memory constraints for advisor trustworthiness despite its relevance for adaptive advice weighting.