Validating information during reading: the effect of recency

Previous studies demonstrated that outdated information may be reactivated and disrupt subsequent processing of newly encoded information. However, previous studies focused on the impact of outdated information that had been backgrounded in memory. The present experiments examined the immediate influence of outdated information; backgrounding information was reduced so that both outdated and current protagonist characteristics were active in memory when readers encountered content that was inconsistent with the outdated information. In Experiments 1 and 2, the order of introduction of outdated and current information was varied; across the two experiments, the elaboration of the current information was also manipulated. When both current and outdated information are still active in memory, only the most recent information influenced comprehension; this was true regardless of whether it was elaborated. These results inform the conditions under which outdated information influences comprehension and are interpreted within the context of the RI-Val model of comprehension.