LOFTUS AND PALMER (1974)

Question 1

Evaluate Loftus and Palmer

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Answer 1

> Generalisability. Intelligent college students = better witnesses. Ppt may have less experience driving a car and this may have affected their judgement of speed, Memon = young adult witnesses better than older, especially if delay in witnessing and recall

EWT = v reliable, >external reliability. Yuille and Cutshall

^Controls, ^Int validity. Lab setting = ctrl of variables; only change was diff verbs. content of the interviews = standardised for each ppt, as was the stimulus material (video clips)

Question 2

What was Loftus and Palmer’s aim (1st experiment)?

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Answer 2

• See if memory can be influenced by info that occurs after an event (leading questions)

Question 3

What was Loftus and Palmer’s procedure (1st experiment)?

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Answer 3

• 45 students shown film clips of traffic accidents (5-30 seconds long)
• Ppts divided into 5 groups
• Asked critical question, ‘how fast were the cars going when they _______ into each other?’ following film
• Gap = diff verbs, ‘smashed’, ‘collided’, ‘bumped’, ‘hit’ or ‘contacted’

Question 4

What was Loftus and Palmer’s procedure (2nd experiment)?

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Answer 4

• 50ppts ‘How fast were cars going when ‘hit’ eachother?’
• 50ppts asked ‘smashed’
• 50 ctrl group = not asked to estimate speed
• After week ppts called back in
• One of questions they were asked was, ‘Did you see any broken glass?’ (there wasn’t)

Question 5

What did Loftus and Palmer find (1st experiment)?

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Answer 5

• ‘Smashed’ elicited sig ^speed estimate (40.8mph) than contacted (31.8mph)

Question 6

What did Loftus and Palmer find (2nd experiment)?

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Answer 6

• ‘smashed’ = 16
• ‘hit’ = 7 glass
• control = 6 glass