Cognitive Research Flashcards
Methodology
Two lab experiments
Independent groups design
Exp 1: 45 students
Exp 2: 150 students
Procedures: Experiment 1
P’s shown 7 clips of traffic accidents
Received questionnaire and given questions about the scenes
Key question: How fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?
•Hit
•Smashed
•Bumped
•Collided
•Contacted
Procedures: Experiment 2
Investigating whether leading questions bias a persons response
Part 1:
P’s shown film of multiple car crash, and asked variations of critical question in 3 groups
Group1: Smashed
Group 2: Hit
Group 3: Control group, no question
Part 2:
A week later P’s called back
Asked: Did you see any broken glass?
None in the film, but it was presumed those with ‘smashed’ may say yes
Findings Experiment 1
Experiment 1:
Smashed 40.8
Hit 39.3
Collided 38.1
Bumped 34.0
Contacted 31.8
Findings Experiment 2
Those who said yes to seeing glass:
Smashed 16
Hit 7
Control 6
Those who said no to seeing glass:
Smashed 34
Hit 43
Control 44
Conclusions
Leading questions CAN alter memory of an event
Two explanations:
Response bias factors - Different speed estimates are due to critical word influencing a persons response
Memory representation altered - Critical word changes perception of incident and can make it seem more serious
Methodology/ Procedures evaluation
-Lacks ecological validity as clips fake
-No informed consent as P’s unaware being given leading Q’s, which would have made more carefully consider answers
-This all means not accurate of EWT in everyday life
-However, was deception necessary to give understanding on inaccuracies of EWT
