Lesson 10 (post event discussion) Flashcards
what is memory contamination?
when the memory of an event is contaminated by discussing it with other people
what is memory conformity
the desire for social approval which causes witnesses to come to a joint view of what happened
what is the procedure for post-event discussion?
Gabbert et al put participants in pairs and made them watch 2 different videos of the same event so they got different details - in 1 condition the pairs were allowed to discuss the events before individually recalling and the other there was no discussion
what was Gabbert et al’s findings?
71% of the participants who discussed recalled information that they didn’t even witness but were what their partners told them
What is a strength of the post-event discussion procedure?
it has population validity - 2 different populations were used (young and old adults) so there is no age bias and it can be generalised
What is a limitation of post-event discussion?
It lacks ecological validity - participants knew they were in an experiment so they were more likely to pay attention to details in the clip so the findings don’t relate to real life where witnesses are exposed to less info
