cognitive bias

Question 1

what is reconstructive memory

Answer 1

Schemas can cause distortion of memory, and that humans tey to find meaning of what they have experienced to fit into existing schemas

Question 2

aim of loftus and palmer study 1

Answer 2

Aim was to investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect speed estimation

Question 3

participants loftus and palmer study 1

Answer 3

5 groups of 9 people

Question 4

loftus and palmer study 1

Answer 4

Iv was: intensity of the verb used
Dv: estimation of the speed

• 7 videos of crashes of 5-30s
  independent sample design - each participant watched each video
• Asked to fill out a questionnaire of what they had seen and questions; one being the important one of speed
• Speed verbs:
  Hit
  Collided
  Bumped
  Smashed
  Contacted

Question 5

loftus and palmer study 1 results

Answer 5

Hit: 34 mph
Collided 39.3 mph
Bumped 38.1 mph
Smashed 40.8 mph
Contacted 31.8 mph
They argised the verb persuaded response and was connected to certain schemas

Question 6

loftus and palmer study 1 strentghs

Answer 6

Confounding variables can be minimized
Cause and effect relationship has been successfully established

Question 7

loftus and palemer study 1 weaknesses

Answer 7

• Lab experiments have so low ecological validity. It may not have evoked the same emotion as a real crash
• Only students, low generalizability
  Young and inexperienced drivers, also estimating the speed of a car is a challenging task.

Question 8

loftus and palmer study 2 aim

Answer 8

They hypothesized that those who had a high speed estimation would claim that they observed broken glass

Question 9

loftus and palmer study 2 participants

Answer 9

150 participants randomly allocated

Question 10

loftus and palmer study 2 procedure

Answer 10

Asked to describe it in their own words
5o asked: samshed
50 asked: hit
50 not asked speed

-One week later they were given 10 more questions
- In this they were asked if they saw broken glass
-There wasnt actually broken glass

Question 11

loftus and palemer study 2 results

Answer 11

Smashed speed: 10.46 mph
Hit speed: 8mph

Shashed: 16 glass
Hit: 7 glass
Control: 6 glass

So most answered correctly but smashed had the highest wrong
Chi squared was used to check significance

Question 12

loftus and palmer conclusion

Answer 12

Supports reconstructive memory and schema because the details of an event are changed when they try to remember it