Loftus and Palmer (Cognitive Area)

Question 1

Loftus and Palmer Experiment 1 Aims

Answer 1

To investigate the effect of leading questions on memory recall

Question 2

Loftus and Palmer Experiment 1 Sample

Answer 2

45 American uni students with similar background and is an opportunistic sample

Question 3

Loftus and Palmer Procedure 1

Answer 3

The participants sat in a lecture theatre and watched a clip of a car crash. The participants were split into 5 groups so there were 9 participants in each group. Participants then answered a series of questions about the car crash and some were filler questions. One question was the critical question which was “About how fast were the cars going when they … into each other?”. The … could have been either smashed, hit, collided, bumped or contacted. Participants only experienced one of the verbs in this question

Question 4

Loftus and Palmer Results of Experiments 1

Answer 4

Smashed - 40.8 mph
Collided - 39.3 mph
Bumped - 38.1 mph
Hit - 34.0 mph
Contacted - 31.8 mph

Question 5

Loftus and Palmer Conclusion of Experiment 1

Answer 5

Leading questions do affect memory recall and in this case changing the verb in the question to smashed gave a higher estimation of speed by the participation

Question 6

Loftus and Palmer Aim of Experiment 2

Answer 6

To see if post event information affects memory recall

Question 7

Loftus and Palmer Sample of Experiment 2

Answer 7

150 American Uni students, similar backgrounds

Question 8

Loftus and Palmer Procedure of Experiment 2

Answer 8

The participants sat in a lecture theatre and watched a clip of a car crash. The participants were split Ito 3 different groups. There were 50 participants in each group and they then answered a series of questions about the car crash. There were 2 experimental groups and 1 control group. The experimental groups were asked “About how fast were the cars going when they … into each other?” The … was either smashed or hit. The control group were asked no questions about speed. Participants came back a week later and they were all asked the critical question which was “Did you see any broken glass?”

Question 9

Loftus and Palmer Results of Experiment 2

Answer 9

Smashed:
Yes - 16
No - 34

Hit:
Yes - 7
No - 43

Control
Yes - 6
No - 44

Question 10

Loftus and Palmer Conclusions of Experiment 2

Answer 10

Post event information does affect memory recall. Loftus and Palmer believed 2 types of information enter