Loftus And Palmer (1974)

Question 0

Where did the videos come from!

Answer 0

Seattle police dept

Evergreen road safety council

Question 1

How many participants in experiment one and two?

Answer 1

Experiment one = 45

Experiment two = 150

Question 2

What was the general aim?

Answer 2

To test whether the phrasing of questions about a car accident could alter participants memory of an event

Question 3

What was the aim of experiment one?

Answer 3

To see whether using different verbs to describe a collision between two cars would effect estimates of the speed at which they are travelling when the crash took place

Question 4

What was the experimental design? (1&2)

Answer 4

Independent measures design

Question 5

How many films were participants shown in experiment one?

Answer 5

Seven films of car crashes

Question 6

After watching the films, what were participants asked to do?(1)

Answer 6

Participants were asked to write an account of the accident and then to answer a series of questions

Question 7

What was the critical question?(1)

Answer 7

About how fast were the cars going when they _______ each other?

Question 8

What was the independent variable?(1)

Answer 8

The verb used in the critical question

hit, contacted, bumped, collided, smashed

Question 9

What was the dependent variable?(1)

Answer 9

Mean speed estimate of the car

Question 10

What was the data?(1)

Answer 10

Qualitative data

Question 11

What did the results show?(1)

Answer 11

We are generally poor at estimating speed

Question 12

What was the mean speed estimate in the smashed and hit groups?(1)

Answer 12

Smashed = 40.5
Hit = 34.0

Question 13

2 possible reasons why speed estimated varied according to the verb used to describe the crash(1)

Answer 13

Response bias - verb indicates whether they should estimate high or low
Memory distortion - verb used in the question actually alters a participants memory of the crash

Question 14

What was the aim of experiment two?

Answer 14

To investigate whether the different speed estimates found in experiment 1 were the result of a distortion in memory

Question 15

How many films did participants watch and how long did it last?
How long was the crash itself?(2)

Answer 15

Watched one film which lasted less than one minute

The crash itself lasted about four seconds

Question 16

What were participants asked to do after watching the film?(2)

Answer 16

Given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accident in their own words and then to answer a series of questions

Question 17

What were the two experimental groups and what was the critical question?(2)

Answer 17

Critical question - about how fast were the cars going when they ____ each other?
Group one = smashed verb
Group two = hit verb

Question 18

How many people were in each group ?(2)

Answer 18

Smashed - 50
Hit - 50
Control - 50

Question 19

What happened one week later? Critical question?(2)

Answer 19

All 150 participants were asked to return and answer a further 10 questions including a critical question - did you see any broken glass when the cars crashed?

Question 20

How many people saw broken glass in the control, hit and smashed group?(2)

Answer 20

Smashed - 16
Hit - 7
Control - 6

Question 21

Conclusion?

Answer 21

The way in which questions about events are worded an effect the way in which those events are remembered

Question 22

Why are the results from experiment 2 important?

Answer 22

Suggest that conclusion isn’t simply due to response bias. Instead it seems that post event questions actually become part of the memory for that event. Wording of questions can distort memory

Question 23

EVALUATION - sample and sampling method

Answer 23

•All American students, same age, predominantly white, middle class, same occupation - not representative of the population

Question 24

Background - Bartlett?

Answer 24

Memories are not accurate records of our experiences - wel fill gaps in our memories with existing ideas/mental representations of the world
Told people a story and found that they retold it with western ideas to fill the gaps

Question 25

Background - Marshall?

Answer 25

Airforce personal wee asked to estimate the speed of an airplane taxi car thing
A rural speed = 12mph
Estimates from 10-50mph