Examining Memory of Risk Information on Medical Exposure: An Experimental Study Using Recognition Test on the Web Site

要旨

A recognition test was conducted to 520 participants in order to investigate the memories of those who received risk information concerning radiation through a Web experiment. We examined what factors might affect the accuracy and the robustness of memories for risk information related to medical exposure, by which we may obtain basic knowledge that will contribute to risk communication. The effects on the state of memories were discussed from three viewpoints such as the signal detection theory, the influence of the contents that the risk information carries, and the individual differences in the psychological information processing. Results of the recognition test showed that the participants gave more False Alarms to the distractor items than they did Correct Rejects, and that these phenomena were more likely to occur for numeracy information than for mechanical information. Furthermore, the multiple regression analyses revealed that the motivation for scientific understanding facilitated the accuracy of memories, and that the need for safety-clarification suppressed the accuracy of memories. Our results suggest that in risk communication it is important to provide receivers mainly with the information on the mechanism and to consider their individual differences in information processing as well.

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