EWT - Misleading Informatiom Flashcards
Who did Loftus use as participants in her study in leading questions?
American students
What type of question can mislead an eye witness?
Leading question
What research method was used in The Loftus car study?
Lab Experiment
Why does the Car study lack ecological validity?
Artificial Situation with no real emotion or consequences involved. This doesn’t represent real life eye witness situations at all
What was the main positive implication to come from Loftus study?
The creation of the Cognitive Interview and it’s replacement if the old Standard Interview.
What was the IV in the car study?
The different verbs used in the critical question per group
What was the DV in the car study?
The estimated speed (miles per hour) of the cars
Why is Loftus study criticised for being affected by demand characteristics?
The study was so unrealistic that some participants may have GUESSED what the aim of the study was. In this case participants may have been playing along rather than truly estimating speed.
What was the critical question in the study?
How fast were the cars going when they ……..?
What verbs were used in each if the critical questions?
Smashed Collided Bumped Hit Contacted
What is a leading question?
A question that leads a witness to change their memory of an event AFTER the event.
Name a suitable graph to demonstrate the results of the car study
Bar Chart
Which group estimates the highest the speed in the car study?
Smashed - approx 41 mph
The car study is highly controlled. What R does this enable?
It enables the study to replicated (repeated again and again
Why can this study be deemed unethical?
Participants may have felt distress or humiliation during the study/debrief
Participants had to be deceived about the nature of the study
The car study had high levels of control over the variables. What does this help us to establish?
Cause and Effect - that the leading questions altered the participants memory for the event DEFINITELY.
Critics argue that The participants were not led by the questions, and that instead they…….?
Really found it hard to estimate speed so just guessed! They were potentially non driving students after all!
The participants are only American and therefore results cannot be generalised to any other culture. What validity does this increase in the study?
Population Validity
The car study is replicable. What does this allow researchers to test?
Reliability. If you do a study again and again you can see if you get similar results. If you do then your results were reliable and not flukey!
Police asked witnesses to a robbery “how tall was the robber?” Explain what this is a leading question.
The word tall implies the robber WAS tall which may cause the witness to get their memory without them even realising.
Which group was most likely to report seeing glass during the car study, even though there was none?
Smashed - 40% reported seeing glass! Probably because you expect to see glass if cars ‘smash’. (This is called a schema)
Which verb produced the lowest estimates if speed?
Contacted - approx 31mph
