laney et al. (aishah) [done]

Question 1

Describe what is meant by ‘false memories’. (4marks)

Answer 1

• People’s memories of events in their own lives can be incorrect/not real.
• False details about real events and entirely false events can be added to a person’s memory storage system/mixed together.
• From all of the stored information, people can reconstruct ‘memories’ for events/imagined events.
  -Doing things like ‘filling in the gaps’ and using false information gets embedded in actual information. As a result of this people form ‘new’ memories that contain information that is not correct.

Question 2

Outline how one result from this study supports the existence of false
memories. (2M)

Answer 2

• for Food preferences questionnaires (FQ), believers reported liking asparagus more than the control group.
• since it had increased since the baseline measure, it indicates that the person has incorporated the false information of liking asparagus into their memories

Question 3

Identify two other features of the sample.

Answer 3

• 128 P’s
• undergraduates
• all from University of California
  mean age around 20/21 years

Question 4

Outline one methodological problem that could arise if children were used as participants in this study.

Question 5

What is the aim of the study?

Answer 5

To investigate whether giving false feedback about suggesting that a participant had loved to eat asparagus as a child would generate a false belief/memory linking to eating and enjoying asparagus

Question 6

what food was used in this study and why ?

Answer 6

asparagus, because:
- most children dislike asparagus as it has a very sophisticated taste
- it is a healthy food

Question 7

Describe the sample for experiment 1 of this study.

Answer 7

• opportunity sampling
• 128 undergrads at the University of California, Irvine
• received course credit for their time
• 77% of females
• mean of their age was 20.8
• randomly assigned to the ‘love group’ and control group

Question 8

name at least 4 questionnaires used in this study

Answer 8

• Food History Inventory (FHI)
• Restaurant Questionnaire (RQ)
• Food Preferences Questionnaire (FPQ)
• Food Costs Questionnaire (FCQ)
• Memory or Belief? Questionnaire (MBQ)

Question 9

give an example of the fillers used in the first experiment

Answer 9

• personality measure
• Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale
• Assessment on eating habits

Question 10

Describe any two of the questionnaires from your previous answer (question was: name at least 4 questionnaires used in this study)

Answer 10

1. Food History Inventory:
   - Participants were given 24 food items
   - critical item at number 16 (asparagus) asking them if they loved asparagus the first time they tried it
   - on a scale from 1 (definitely did not happen) to 8 (definitely did before the age of 10)

2.Restaraunt questionnaire:
- the P’s were given questions in the form of a menu with 32 dishes and were to imagine
- that they were out for a special dinner
-categories: appetizers, soups & salads, entrees, sides and desserts
- they were meant to say how likely would they order a dish, regardless of its price - with critical item: sauteed asparagus (made it sound better for them to be more tempted)
- on a scale of 1 (definitely no) to 8 (definitely yes)

Question 11

What’s the IV in this study?

Answer 11

IV: if the P had the false belief that they had enjoyed asparagus as a kid (love vs control group)

Question 12

Describe the DV

Answer 12

• formation of false asparagus-related belief
• consequences of the belief

Question 13

outline some ethical guidelines that were followed in this study and mention how

Answer 13

Debriefing: Participants told about the aim of studying false memory (after the study);

(Informed) consent: Participants were told they would be expected to recall childhood memories;

Confidentiality: Participants were not named so the reader does not know who was misled about their childhood;

Right to withdraw: Participants could leave as they did not have to do the first or second interview

Question 14

The Restaurant Questionnaire measures the likelihood of eating certain foods.
Explain one reason why it may not measure this accurately.

Answer 14

What people say they will do on a questionnaire may not ‘mirror’ their behaviour
therefore just because they said they would be more likely eat asparagus we don’t know if they actually would

Question 15

Describe the psychology that is being investigated in the study by Laney et al.

Answer 15

People may have memories for events, etc. that never actually happened;

People can reconstruct memories of events that have real and false memories in them;

These could alter our perception of childhood memories (or any memory);

People can fill in the gaps using false information;

The information can be post-event that gets embedded in the actual memory;

They can be either negative (a crime) or positive (liking asparagus)

Question 16

Suggest one real life application of this study.

Answer 16

Therapists/nutritionists can use the ‘computer generated’ fake profile to change the memories of food someone dislikes

Question 17

Describe the hypothesis of this study

Answer 17

Laney et al expected to be able to implant memories of loving asparagus the first time it was tried from previous research, but wanted to investigate if these false memories would lead to positive consequences for their participants

Question 18

Describe the methodology

Answer 18

Laboratory; Questionnaire; Independent Measures- participants only took part in one of the two conditions: the ‘love’ condition or the control group

Question 19

What sampling method was used by laney

Answer 19

Volunteer from students who received credit

Question 20

What was the conclusion from experiment 2

Answer 20

• Subjects can be given false food beliefs, and these beliefs can have consequences
• Subjects believed our false feedback were more likely than control subjects to rate a photograph of the critical food, asparagus as more appetising and less disgusting
• photo provides 1st step toward assessing the mechanisms associated with false memory
  -The mere sight of our critical item in a photo is sufficient to rate asparagus more positively

Question 21

how reliable could this study be considered

Answer 21

• Standardised questionnaires
• High Control: rating scales and the false feedback given
• Reliability increased because of: and replication - Standardization

Question 22

what are some weaknesses in this study

Answer 22

• subjects may have felt they couldn’t withdraw due to credit received
• Deception: the P’s were told they would be completing a series of questionnaires to help study the relationship between food preferences and personality

Question 23

What is the application of this study to everyday life?

Answer 23

The findings of this study could be used with children labeled as fussy eaters (Children don’t like fruit and veggies then parents or doctors could use the same procedures as the researchers to make those children believe they do like those foods. May encourage fussy eaters to have more healthy diet.)

Question 24

What were the P’s told that the study was about?

Answer 24

study of relationship between food preferences and personality

Question 25

Describe the restaurant questionnaire

Answer 25

• it was the second questionnaire given to the P’s were they had to imagine being on a special date in a restaurant and how likely would they be to order the dishes on the menu, regardless of its price
• the questionnaire was like a menu with different sections like dessert, appetiser, starters, soup and salads, entrees)
• their rating was from 1 ie ‘definitely no’ to 8 ie ‘definitely yes’
• there were 32 dishes with ‘sautéed asparagus spears’ as its critical item

Question 26

How many questionnaire were given in the first session and when was the second session conducted

Answer 26

the first session had two main questionnaires ie the food inventory test and restaurant questionnaire. It also had additional filler questionnaires like personality measure, subset of the Marlowe- Crowne social desirability scale and a questionnaire that assessed eating habits . therefore there were 5 questionnaires
the next session took place a week after where they were given false feedback about their responses.

Question 27

How long did the experiment take place for?

Answer 27

Each day’s procedures took less than 1/2 hour for subjects to complete

Question 28

why was a second experiment conducted?

Answer 28

• to know how did loving a healthy food the first time we tried it lead to increase liking of the food
• it was designed to begin to address the question of the underlying mechanism of the current and previous findings

Question 29

what was aim of experiment 2

Answer 29

to replicate and extent the results of experiment 1

Question 30

What was the cover story in experiment 2

Answer 30

there was no cover story

Question 31

why did they conduct a 3rd experiment

Answer 31

there was no 3rd experiment