Laney - asparagus

Question 1

What is the aim in experiment 1?

Answer 1

To investigate if giving false feedback suggesting that a participant had loved to eat asparagus as a child, would generate a false belief or memory of experiences linked to eating and enjoying asparagus

Question 2

What are the Questionnaires being used?

Answer 2

FHI - Food History Inventory
RQ - Restaurant Questionnaire
FPQ - Food Preference Questionnaire
FCQ - Food Cost Questionnaire
MBQ - Memory of belief Questionnaire

Question 3

Describe Food History Inventory (FHI)

Answer 3

Respondents rated 24 items on a scale of 1 (definitely did not happen) to 8 (definitely did happen) as to their food experiences before age of 10 (e.g. “Loved asparagus the first time you tried it”)

Question 4

Describe Restaurant Questionnaire (RQ)

Answer 4

Assessed respondents’ desire to eat each of 32 separate dishes (e.g. sautéed asparagus spears). This questionnaire was designed to look like a menu with five “courses”. Respondents were asked to imagine they were out for a special dinner and to rate, regardless of price, how likely they would be to order each food on a scale of 1 (definitely no) to 8

Question 5

Describe Food Preference Questionnaire

Answer 5

62 item inventory of items of food (e.g. asparagus) that respondents had to rate on a 1 (definitely don’t like to eat, for whatever reason) to 8 (definitely like to eat).

Question 6

Describe Food Cost Questionnaire

Answer 6

List of 21 different food items (e.g. a pound of asparagus) with multiple choice answers where respondents had to circle the price they would be willing to pay for each, including a “would never buy” option. For asparagus, price options were $1.90, $2.50, $3.20, $3.80, $4.40, $5.00 and $5.70.

Question 7

Describe Memory of belief Questionnaire

Answer 7

Asked to indicate whether they had a memory of an experience with 3 items from the FHI, inc., for the “love” condition, the critical item of asparagus. Choices were that they had specific memory of the event occurring, a belief the event had occurred (but lacked specific memory), or were positive that the event had not occurred.

Question 8

What is the IV

Answer 8

Whether a participant had the false belief that they had enjoyed asparagus as a child embedded during the second part of the experiment. These participants were compared with a (control group) of participants who received no false belief.

Question 9

What is the DV

Answer 9

Measured through use of 5 questionnaires- Questionnaire is a self-report measure where participants respond through writing their answers down.

Question 10

How many people were in Experiment 1? How many males/females? Mean age?

Answer 10

128 undergraduate students at University of California receiving course credit for their time
99 females, 29 males
mean age: 20.8

Question 11

Describe the procedure in week 1 for experiment 1

Answer 11

Pps were told that they were going to take part in a study of “food preferences and personality” (limit demand characteristics)

WEEK ONE - all pps first completed the FHI and RQ
also 3 other questionnaires, to distract from the true aim of the study
- personality measure
- social desirability scale
- eating habits questionnaire

Question 12

Describe the procedure in week 2 for experiment 1

Answer 12

Pps back in lab, randomly allocated to “love asparagus” condition or control group.
They were told that their responses from the 1st week had been processed by a computer which had generated a profile of their early childhood experiences with food.

Question 13

Give an example of a part of their ‘profile’. (experiment 1)

Answer 13

As a young child, you disliked spinach, you enjoyed fried foods, and you felt happy when a classmate brought sweets to school

Question 14

What is the critical item and where is it placed? (experiment 1)

Answer 14

the critical item ‘you loved to eat cooked asparagus’ was embedded in the 3rd position of the profile for participants in the ‘love’ condition

Question 15

What did the control group receive? Is it different from ‘love’ group? (experiment 1)

Answer 15

controlled group only received the 3 filler items (distractor questionnaires)

Question 16

Why were pps asked about the profile they just read?

Answer 16

To ensure that they had processed the feedback

Question 17

What questionnaires did they complete again at the end?(experiment 1)

Answer 17

FPQ, MBQ, FCQ

Question 18

Describe the procedure in week 1 for experiment 2

Answer 18

arrived at the lab and were told they were going to complete several questionnaires to generate a personal profile of eating experiences based on their responses

They first completed FHI, RQ and FPQ, and two distractor questionnaires

• personality measure
• social desirability scale

Question 19

Were pps deceived in experiment 2?

Answer 19

No they were not, they were told the aim at the start, but they were deceived in experiment 1.

Question 20

Describe the procedure in week 2 for experiment 2

Answer 20

randomly allocated to each condition
they were told that their responses from the 1st week had been processed by a computer which had generated a profile of their early childhood experiences with food.

(same as experiment 1)

Question 21

What is the critical item and where is it placed? (experiment 2)

Answer 21

pps in ‘love’ condition - ‘you loved asparagus the first time you ate it’ in the third position

Question 22

What else did the pps in experiment 2 do after profile, which is different from experiment 1?

Answer 22

completed elaboration exercise - required to give details about their memory of eating asparagus, or if they had no memory of it, what might have happened.

Question 23

What did the control group receive? Is it different from ‘love’ group? (experiment 2)

Answer 23

control group - told nothing about asparagus and did not complete the elaboration exercise

Question 24

What were all pps being asked in experiment 2 after the profile and elaboration exercise (only love group did it)?

Answer 24

All pps were then asked: what is the most important childhood, food-related event in your life that your food profile did not report?

Question 25

What did they do at the end for experiment 2? (before questionnaires)

Answer 25

a slide show of 20 colour photographs of common foods were displayed for 30 secs. Pps were asked 4 questions about each slide. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 8 (very much)

• how appetising they found the food depicted in the photo
• how disgusting they found the food depicted in the photo
• the artistic quality of the photo
• whether the photo was taken by a novice, amateur or expert photographer

Question 26

What questionnaires did pps in experiment 2 complete?

Answer 26

completed RQ, FPQ and the FHI for the second time

Question 27

What is the results from experiment 1?

Answer 27

RQ scores for believers increased significantly from pre to post manipulation, and was significantly higher in session 2 than the controls.

FPQ - controls = 3.84, believers = 6.14, significant difference was found

FCQ - believers were willing to pay significantly more for asparagus compared to the control group.

Question 28

How do they classify believers and non-believers?

Answer 28

To be classified as a believer:
given a low rating on FHI initially asked if they loved asparagus
increased their rating on the FHI when asked if they loved asparagus on week two
given positive ‘memory’ or ‘belief’ response on the MBQ

Question 29

What is the conclusion for experiment 1

Answer 29

pps can be led to develop positively framed false beliefs, and these false beliefs can have a consequence on behaviour and food preferences

pps who had the false belief implanted increased their rating of their love for asparagus, and these further impact on how much they spend, greater intention to eat, greater preference

Question 30

What is the conclusion for experiment 2?

Answer 30

pps can be given false food beliefs and that these have consequences.
Implanting a false memory causes a person to process the thing they have a false memory about more fluently in subsequent encounters. This fluency is interpreted as familiarity, which is misattributed to a childhood experience and adult preference

Question 31

What is the general conclusion?

Answer 31

• it is possible to implant false beliefs and false memories for a positive childhood experience, such as liking or loving asparagus the first time one tried it
• these false beliefs are associated with positive attitudinal and behaviour consequences

Question 32

What is a potential drawback of this experiment?

Answer 32

not able to access how long the apparent consequences of false belief might last

Question 33

How does memory differ from belief?

Answer 33

Memory: specific structured units that may be quite detailed
Beliefs: less specific and less tied to time and place

Question 34

What is the result for FHI in ex1?

Answer 34

Love 1.5-4.1

Control 1.5-1.7

Question 35

What are the results found in ex2?

Answer 35

• believers rated the asparagus photo as more appetising and less disgusting than the control
• RQ, neither believer nor the control group reported an increased desire to eat asparagus

Question 36

What is the background?

Answer 36

• researchers have been able to implant false details for actual events
• but only negative events
• human memory is subjective to many types of distortion
• people’s memories of their own lives may be incorrect
• people can reconstruct memory by filling the gaps and using false information that gets embedded as actual events

Question 37

What are the pps asked about their profile?

Answer 37

Imagine the setting in which this experience might have happened. Where were you? Who was with you? To what extent did this experience affect your personality?
on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 9 (very much)