lesson 11 - Loftus & Palmer’s (1974) GRAVE

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To investigate the effect of misleading information given to Eyewitnesses account (episodic memory).

Question 2

Experiment 1

Answer 2

• Independent measures design within the study, they got 45 American students to watch 7 traffic accident films.
• They were asked several questions afterwards, with the critical question being ‘How fast were the cars going when they ____ each other?’
• There were 5 independent groups each having a different verb in the question, either; smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted.
• It was found an aggressive verb of smashed lead to an average perceived speed of 40.5mph where contacted produced 31.8mph.

Question 3

Experiment 2

Answer 3

• The second experiment involved 150 American students who were shown a one-minute clip of a multiple-car traffic accident and then put into 3 groups with a critical Q: ‘How fast were the cars going when they ____ (smashed, hit, control)?’.
• The questionnaire included - ‘Did you see any broken glass?’ (there wasn’t any).
• 16/50 of those in the ‘smashed’ said yes, whereas 7/50 in the hit and 6/50 in the control said yes.

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

In conclusion, the verb in a question gave expectations about the speed and details of the crash. Misleading information can easily distort episodic memories and even make false memories.

Question 5

Generalisability (weakness)

Answer 5

Lack of generalizability. Sample of participants were all from American universities. Results are not representative for older populations who are less likely to be mislead by their schema as they have more experience and understanding of cars and speed than the university students.

Question 6

Reliability (strength)

Answer 6

A strength is its reliability. Used standardized questions in experiments (1/2) such as “how fast were the cars going when they contacted each others with the word ‘contacted’ being change to other leading verbs. This is a strength because with the standardized nature of the experiment, other psychologists can successfully replicate the study to test for consistency of results.

Question 7

Application (strength)

Answer 7

Conclusions have created useful real-world applications such as the Cognitive Interview (CI), used by police. Loftus and Palmer concluded that misleading information can easily distort episodic memories (Experiment 1). The CI’s first component is Free recall, where leading & closed questions are avoided

Question 8

Validity - internal (strength)

Answer 8

Validity of Loftus and Palmer’s studies are high. Both experiments (1 and 2) were lab experiments with controlled variables. Participants answers were not impacted by extraneous variables, allowing Loftus and Palmer successfully establish a cause and effect relationship between the intensity of the verb included in the question and the perceived speed of the car in the videos as well as if broken glass was seen.

Question 9

Validity - ecological (weakness)

Answer 9

A limitation is a lack of ecological validity. Loftus & Palmer got participants to watch a video of a car crash. Watching film clips is a different experience from witnessing a real accident, mainly because of the lack of stress and emotional response. The artificial stimulus used in the experiment doesn’t give us a real insight into how leading questions affect EWT in cases of real crimes

Question 10

Ethics (weakness)

Answer 10

The ethics of Loftus & Palmer’s study can be criticised because participants were deceived by not being told the aim of investigating misleading information to prevent demand characteristics. The cost-benefit analysis of the study is worthwhile since participants were debriefed and told the true aims at the end of the study and the validity of the study was higher due to the deception