Braun et al Flashcards
B1 - Aim
To see whether autobiographical advertising could affect how people remember childhood experiences.
B1 - Type
Lab experiment with a questionnaire.
B1 - Design
Independent measures.
B1 - Hypothesis
People would reconstruct their childhood memories to include information in an advert.
B1 - Sample
107 undergraduates from an American university.
B1 - IV
Whether participants were shown a Disney advert of a control advert.
B1 - DV
Difference in scores after two on weeks on how sure the participant was that they shook hands with a Disney character, rated in a 0-100 scale.
B1 - Procedure
Participants were assigned either the Disney or control advert. In week one, participants received questionnaires on childhood events. The second week, they were shown their advert, asked to imagine being there, and we tore down their feelings on it. Then, the first experimenter came in, saying there were problems with the questionnaires so they repeated them, as well as completing a questionnaire about Disneyland.
B1 - Results
Of those who saw the Disney advert, 65% said they’d been to Disneyland and 74% said they could imagine it. More in the Disney condition increased confidence that they’d shaken hands with a character - 90% in the Disney were confident, only 47% in the control.
B1 - Conclusion
Autobiographical advertising does have effects on memory, and can cause imagination inflation.
B2 - Aim
To see whether false information in an advert could make participants think something happened to them as a child.
B2 - Type
Lab experiment with a questionnaire.
B2 - Design
Independent measures.
B2 - Hypothesis
They could change people’s memories through advertising.
B2 - Sample
167 undergraduates from an American university.
B2 - Procedure
Split into three conditions: Bugs Bunny, Ariel, and a control. They completed questionnaires on childhood memories, asking if they shook hands with a Disney character. The rest of the procedure was the same.
B2 - Results
All three groups increased their confidence that they’d shaken hands after watching their adverts - 78% increase for Bugs Bunny, 76% for Ariel, and 62% for control.
B2 - Conclusions
Autobiographical advertising can make people feel more confident in their memories, and can make us believe false events.
B - Criticisms
Lacked ecological validity and construct validity, sample was age and culturally biased, and there were ethical issues in that the participants were deceived.