AI Hallucination
An AI hallucination is generated output that presents false or unsupported information as if it were accurate.
Information QualityAI and synthetic media glossary
Look up a term and find a clear explanation, an example, and sources to explore. Each entry tells you whether the idea is established, emerging, or proposed here.
Browse 51 terms about memory, AI, trust, and synthetic media. Prefer to explore a subject? Browse the topic map.
A
Algorithm Appreciation
Algorithm appreciation is a tendency to give greater weight to advice believed to come from an algorithm than to comparable human advice.
Human-AI TrustAlgorithm Aversion
Algorithm aversion is a reluctance to use algorithmic advice, sometimes even when it performs better than an available human alternative.
Human-AI TrustAnthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism means attributing human qualities, emotions, or intentions to something nonhuman, such as an animal, object, or AI system.
Social EffectsAudiovisual Credibility
Audiovisual credibility describes how believable or trustworthy an image, recording, or video seems to a viewer or listener.
BeliefAuthenticity Calibration
Authenticity calibration is a proposed label here for how closely confidence in a media-authenticity judgment matches actual accuracy.
Authenticity RecognitionAutomation Bias
Automation bias is a tendency to rely on automated advice in ways that overlook relevant information or introduce errors.
Human-AI TrustC
Cognitive Offloading
Cognitive offloading is the use of external actions or tools to reduce the mental work a task requires.
MemoryConfirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is a tendency to seek or interpret evidence in ways that favor an existing belief, expectation, or hypothesis.
BeliefContent Credentials
Content Credentials are digitally signed provenance records that can document how media was created or edited using the C2PA standard.
Authenticity RecognitionContent Provenance
Content provenance is information about where a piece of content came from and how it was created, changed, or passed along.
Authenticity RecognitionContinued Influence Effect
The continued influence effect occurs when corrected misinformation still affects a person's later reasoning or judgments.
BeliefD
Debunking
Debunking corrects a false or misleading claim by explaining what is wrong and presenting relevant evidence.
Media LiteracyDeepfake
A deepfake is realistic synthetic or manipulated audio, imagery, or video that depicts a person or event differently from what actually occurred.
ExposureDevelopmental Media Literacy
Developmental media literacy considers how people learn to understand and evaluate media at different ages and stages of development.
DevelopmentDigital Watermarking
Digital watermarking embeds a signal in content to help identify its origin, ownership, or processing history.
Authenticity RecognitionDisinformation
Disinformation is false or misleading information deliberately created or shared to deceive.
Information QualityE
Epistemic Vigilance
Epistemic vigilance is the evaluation of communicated information and its source before deciding what to accept.
Media LiteracyF
False Memory
A false memory is a recollection of an event or detail that did not happen as remembered. It can feel convincing without being deliberately invented.
MemoryG
Generated Personality
A generated personality is a software-created persona presented through language, voice, images, or interactions. It does not establish consciousness.
IdentityGenerative AI
Generative AI is artificial intelligence that produces content such as text, images, audio, video, or code using patterns learned from data.
ExposureH
Hyperreal Exposure
Hyperreal exposure is a proposed term here for artificial experiences that are more vivid, polished, or intense than ordinary life.
ExposureI
Illusory Truth Effect
The illusory truth effect is the tendency to judge a repeated statement as more true than a comparable unfamiliar statement.
BeliefImagination Inflation
Imagination inflation is an increase in confidence that a past event occurred after imagining that event.
MemoryImmersive Media
Immersive media is designed to draw people into a space or experience through features such as surrounding imagery, spatial sound, or interaction.
ExposureL
Lateral Reading
Lateral reading is checking an unfamiliar source by leaving it to examine what other credible sources say about it and its claims.
Media LiteracyM
Media Literacy
Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using media, including understanding its sources and purpose.
Defensive MechanismsMere-Exposure Effect
The mere-exposure effect is a tendency for repeated encounters with a stimulus to increase liking for it.
PerceptionMisinformation
Misinformation is false or misleading information. The term often describes errors shared without an intention to deceive.
Information QualityMisinformation Effect
The misinformation effect occurs when misleading information received after an event affects how someone later remembers or reports it.
MemoryN
Narrative Transportation
Narrative transportation is deep mental involvement in a story through focused attention, imagery, and emotion.
PerceptionP
Parasocial Relationship
A parasocial relationship is a lasting, one-sided sense of connection with a media figure who does not know the audience member personally.
Social EffectsPrebunking
Prebunking prepares people to recognize misleading claims or manipulation techniques before they encounter them.
Media LiteracyPresence
Presence is the feeling of being in a mediated place or directly encountering someone through media, even while using a screen or headset.
PerceptionProcessing Fluency
Processing fluency is the subjective ease with which someone perceives, understands, or retrieves information.
PerceptionProteus Effect
The Proteus effect describes changes in behavior associated with the characteristics of a person's digital self-representation.
Behavioral EffectsProvenance Signal
A provenance signal provides information about where media came from or how it was changed. Knowing its origin does not establish that its claims are true.
Defensive MechanismsR
Reality Monitoring
Reality monitoring is the process of judging whether a memory came from an external experience or an internally generated thought.
MemoryReality-Model Drift
Reality-model drift is a hypothesis that repeated synthetic experiences could gradually change what someone expects ordinary life to be like.
PerceptionReconstructive Memory
Reconstructive memory is the rebuilding of a past experience from remembered details, knowledge, and cues available during recall.
MemoryS
Social Presence
Social presence is the sense that another social actor is present and available for interaction through a medium.
Social EffectsSource Monitoring
Source monitoring is the process of judging where a memory or piece of information came from, such as a conversation, an image, or direct experience.
MemorySource-Monitoring Error
A source-monitoring error happens when someone remembers information but attributes it to the wrong source.
MemorySynthetic Imprinting
Synthetic imprinting is a proposed term for lasting changes in memory, beliefs, expectations, or perception that may follow AI-generated or simulated experiences.
Core FrameworkSynthetic Media
Synthetic media is content created or substantially changed by software, including AI-generated images, voices, video, and text.
ExposureSynthetic Memory
Synthetic memory is a proposed label here for a recollection shaped substantially by generated or simulated content. It need not be a false memory.
MemorySynthetic Reality
On this site, synthetic reality means an experienced setting made largely from generated or simulated elements. The phrase has no single standard definition.
ExposureT
Transfer of Learning
Transfer of learning occurs when knowledge or skills acquired in one situation affect performance in another.
LearningTrust Calibration
Trust calibration is the alignment between someone's trust in a system and what that system can reliably do in a particular context.
Human-AI TrustV
Virtual Embodiment
Virtual embodiment is the experience of a virtual body as one's own, including a sense of location, ownership, or control.
IdentityVoice Cloning
Voice cloning uses recorded speech to generate new audio resembling a particular person's voice.
Exposure