1.4.4 - Classic Research Loftus & palmer (Co) Flashcards
What did Carmichael et al find about providing people with different verbal description for the same set of images?
The memory of the image alters
What does Carmichael’s research suggest about information and memory?
Info is not simply saved and regurgitated
Memory is reconstructed rather than reproduced
If we are faced with an ambiguous situation what will we use?
Additional information to help us clarify our understanding and memory of a situation
What did bartlett’s war of the ghosts study into reconstructive memory involve?
Reading a native America story (WOTG) to English participants and asking them to recall it
What did Bartlett find from his war of the ghosts study into reconstructive memory?
His participants made the story more English reconstructing it using story schemas
What did loftus and Palmer apply the idea of memory construction to?
eye witness testimony
What did loftus and Palmer have a specific focus on regarding memory?
How language affects our memory
What did loftus and Palmers research into reconstructive memory involve?
Looking at people’s ability to judge the speed of a car
What did marshalls Air Force research involve?
Asking Air Force personnel to estimate how fast a car was going
What did marshalls Air Force results show?
Speed estimates ranged from 10 - 50 mph when the actual speed was 12 mph
What did marshalls research show about people’s judgement of speed?
They are often poor judges
What was loftus and palmers aim?
To find out about the role of leading questions on how accurate people’s memories were off car accident
What was the purpose of study 1?
To investigate wether the form of questions can markedly and systematically affect a witnesses answer to that question
How many participants were in experiment 1?
45 students
What type of experiment was experiment 1?
Lab
In experiment 1, What was presented randomly to each group?
7 films of traffic accidents ranging from 5 - 30 seconds
In experiment 1, what did the participants have to do after each film?
Give a general account of what they had just seen and answer specific questions about the accident
In experiment 1, what was the critical question? And what did it act as?
“How fast were the cars going when they hit each other”
Acted As the IV
In experiment 1, why did the critical question act as the IV?
As it was manipulated in 5 conditions
In experiment 1, what did each group of 9 subjects hear?
A different verb in the sentence e.g. Hit, smashed, collided, contacted, or bumped
In experiment 1, what was the DV?
The estimate speed
In experiment 1 what was the mean speed estimate for the verb smashed?
40.8
In experiment 1 what was the mean speed estimate for the verb collided?
39.3
In experiment 1 what was the mean speed estimate for the verb bumped?
38.1
In experiment 1 what was the mean speed estimate for the verb hit?
34.0
In experiment 1 what was the mean speed estimate for the verb contacted?
31.8
In experiment 1, the speed of how many out of the seven films were known?
4 out of 7
In experiment 1, film 1 the speed of collision was 20mph, what was the estimate speed?
37.7
In experiment 1, film 2 the actual speed of collision was 30mph, what was the mean speed estimate?
36.2
In experiment 1 in film 3 the actual speed was 40 mph, what was the mean speed estimate?
39.7
In experiment 1, film 4 the actual speed was 40mph what was the mean speed estimate?
36.1mph
What did the results of experiment 1 indicate about people?
- they are poor judges of speed
* they are systematically and significantly affected by the wording of questions
In experiment 1 what could the finding of people being affected by wording of questions be attributed to?
- response bias
* genuine change of memory
What is response bias discussed in the conclusions of experiment 1?
Where the subject remembers accurately but is pressured by the word to increase or decrease their estimate
In experiment 1, of the participant had a genuine change in memory what might it lead to?
Recalling details that didn’t occur
What was the second experiment designed to determine?
Which explanation of different speed estimates was correct
How many participants were in experiment 2?
150 students
What was the research method of experiment 2?
A lab experiment
In experiment 2 a minute long film was presented to the group what did it feature?
Four seconds of a multiple traffic accident
In experiment 2 what happened after the participants were shown the film?
They had to give a age metal account of what they had seen and answer more specific questions about the accident
What was the IV in experiment 2?
The critical question
How was the IV manipulated?
50 asked how fast were the cars going when they hit each other
50 asked how fast when they smashed into each other
In experiment 2 what did the remaining 50 act as?
A control group as they were not asked at all
In experiment 2, when was the DV measured?
1 week later when the participants returned to answer 10 questions
What was the DV in experiment 2?
The critical question of the 10 - did you see broken glass?
In experiment 2 was there any broken glass in the film? What was expected?
No
Expected some might falsely remember broken glass if the leading question had altered their memory
In experiment 2 what was the mean estimate for smashed and hit?
Smashed - 10.46 mph
Hit - 8 mph
In experiment 2 how many of the smashed group reported seeing broken glass? How many didn’t?
Glass - 16
No glass - 34
In experiment 2 how many of the hit group reported seeing broken glass? How many didn’t?
Glass - 7
No glass - 43
In experiment 2 how many of the control group reported seeing broken glass? How many didn’t?
Glass - 6
No glass - 44
In experiment 2 what did the authors conclude the results show?
The verb smashed not only increases speed estimates but distorts memory
