Loftus and Palmer Flashcards
What is the background to this study?
Loftus was interested in the fragility of memory, how easily we forget information. She was heavily interested in the validity of eyewitness testimony. She believed stress could influence the memory of the event they had witnessed as well as the way the interview was carried out
What does schema theory mean?
The ability to retain information and to demonstrate this retention of information through behaviour
What is reconstructive memory?
The way our biases and prejudices can unconsciously lead us to have memeories of events that are distortions of what actually happened
What are leading questions?
A question by its form or consent suggesting what answer is desired
What is the sample?
45 students from Washington USA, split into 5 groups of 9
Independent measures design
What is the DV?
How fast the car is going (estimnated speed in videos)
What is the IV?
The 5 verbs used:
-Hit
-Collided
-Smashed
-Contacted
-Bumped
What is the procedure for ex1?
- WATCH- students shown 7 clips from evergreen safety council of seattle police depatment. The staged clips lasted 5-30 seconds. 4/7 clips had staged crashes of which the speed when they crashed was known. Different order for each ppt
- QUESTIONS- After each clip, ppts given questionnaire of 2 parts (an account of the incident and questions on the incident)
Critical questions:
About how fast where the cars going when they ___ each other
What was the data collection method for ex1?
Self report- ppts asked questions following the car crashes
eg experiment 1 was asked about speed estimations but experiment 2 was asked about seeing broken glass
What were the results FOR EX1?
Smashed - 40.8 mean speed mph
Collided- 39.3
Bumped- 38.1
Hit- 34.0
Contacted- 31.8
What were the conclusions for ex1?
People are not good at estimating speed of cars
The form of question changes your answer
What was the explanation of the results for ex1?
Interpretation 1 (response bias)- The word in the critical question biases ppts to give a different speed estimate
Interpretation 2 (memory change)- The word in the critical question changed the memory the ppt had about how fast the car was going
What was experimental design for ex2?
Independant measures
What was the sample for ex2?
150 people, split into 3 groups of 50, Washington USA students
What was the procedure for ex2?
Stage 1 WATCH- 1 video of multiple car crashes (4 secs of clip was the crash). Then asnwered first questionnaire which included the critical question which was changed
-What speed when they hit each other
-What speed when they smashed into eachother
-Control group wasnt asked critical question
Stage 2 (1 week later) QUESTIONS- 10 more questions inlcuding critcal (did you see any broken glass?)
IV for ex2?
3 verbs:
Hit
Smashed
Control
DV for ex2?
The effect on ppts of having asked this question
Main measure: no. of ppts from each condition who said they have remembered seeing broken glass
The way a question is worded, can it create a false memory in someone?
Results for ex2?
Smashed- 16/50 saw broken glass
Hit- 7/50 saw broken glass
Control group- 6/50 saw broken glass
Conclusions from ex2?
Form of a question does change witness memory
Explanation of results ex2?
Own perception- your own perception of the event (own memory)
External info- Content given after event. Through questionning from police media etc
Both combined to create your mem of the event and its hard to distinguish between what you had to experience and what youve been told
What ethical guildines did loftus and palmer uphold?
Consent- students consented to their participation in memory experiment
What ethics did they break?
Deception- werent told the true aim of the study and were decieved by irrelevent questions
Protection from harm- ppts may be upset watching car crashes
Was this study ethnocentric?
Only carried out on USA students
Could be argued that it doesnt matter where the research was carried out as memory is universal
Internal reliability of this study
Procedure is standardised as all ppts watched same car accidents and had same questions and same time inbetween testing in experi 2
External reliability of this study
Study1: 45 students (9 per condition isnt enough)
Study2: 150 students, large enough sample to establish consistent effect
7 films in exper 1 means reliable result
Interbal validity in this study?
Very controlled, unlikely to have extraneous variables, perhaps some said they saw glass as demand characteristics
External validity of this study
Population: All from USA, lacking diversity
Ecological: Staged accidents hard to replicate how someone will behave in a scenario
How does L&P link to the principals of cognitive area?
Focuses on the interbal mental process of memory and how it can be inlfuenced by external sources after an event. Described reconstructive memory as being a problem when the memory is encoded. External factors get mixed with our own perception and change the memory
