Loftus and Palmer's study Flashcards
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
To investigate the effect of language on memory (in particular leading questions)
What was the expectation of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
That leading questions would be integrated into a person’s memory, which would cause the event to be recalled in a way consistent with the new information provided
What are leading questions?
Questions that increase the likelihood that an individual’s schema will influence them to give a desired answer
What is a schema?
Preconceived prior ideas/ experiences/ knowledge about a topic
What is false memory syndrome?
Memory’s reconstructed due to misleading information/leading questions
What was the sample of Experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
45 participants - split into 5 groups of 9 - undergraduates from the university of Washington in Seattle
What was the DV of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
An estimate of the speed that the cars were going at
What was the IV of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
The verb used in the critical question: smashed Contacted Bumped Hit Collided
What was the procedure of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Participants were shown 7 film clips - 4 of them contained car crash. After each video participants asked to give an account of the accident they had just seen. They answered a set of questions relating to the accident; critical question was “about how fast were the cars going when they ______ each other”
What was the mean speed estimate for the verb smashed and the verb contacted?
Smashed = 40.5 contacted = 31.8
What were the conclusions of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Participants are not goof at estimating speeds of moving vehicles
the intensity of the verb impacts our speed estimates
Outline Loftus and Palmer’s two possible interpretations of the results
Response bias - participants not sure whether to say 30 or 40 mph but verb smashed biased them towards giving a higher estimate
The verb affected their memory - the verb caused a change in participants memory for the events so smashed leads them to remember the event as being more serious than it was.
What was the IV of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
The verb used in critical question:
smashed
hit
control group not asked critical question
What was the DV of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
The speed estimate and whether or not they saw broken glass.
What was the sample of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
150 participants split into 3 groups (undergraduates from Washington university in Seattle)
What was the procedure (part 1) of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Part 1 of the procedure was almost the same as experiment 1. Participants watched one clip of a multiple car crash and were given a questionnaire including the critical questions on speed. One group had hit, the other smashed and the third didn’t have the critical question.
What was the procedure (part 2) of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
A week after part 1, all participants came back and were asked a second critical question in amongst a list of 10 questions. “Did you see any broken glass?”. There was no broken glass in the clip
What were the mean estimates of speed for subjects questioned with the verbs smashed and hit?
smashed = 10.46 mph hit = 8 mph
What were the results of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study? (in terms of smashed glass)
Smashed = 16 said yes, 34 said no hit = 7 said yes, 43 said no' control = 6 said yes, 44 said no
What was the conclusion of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Evidence of reconstructive memory due to questioning - changing person’s schema for clip
How did Loftus and Palmer explain their results for Experiment 2?
Memory is made up of 2 parts: information from original scene, external information supplied after the event
We like memories to make sense so participants who thought the accident was at a higher speed would think it more severe and believe that broken glass was present (false memory syndrome)
In what ways did Loftus and Palmer’s study uphold ethical guidelines?
Confidentiality
debrief
right to withdraw
In what ways did Loftus and Palmer’s study break ethical guidelines?
protection from harm
deception
informed consent
Was Loftus and Palmer’s study ethnocentric?
Yes - only US culture and only middle-upper classes - even difficult to generalise to other English speaking cultures
Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have internal reliability?
Yes, was almost totally standardised and was controlled for order effects and demand characteristics
Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have external reliability?
Study 1 - alright, gave a reasonable consistent effect - could have been better
study 2 - clearly showed an effect however could have been more.
Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have internal validity?
not necessarily - could have been measuring participant variables
could have been measure of conformity - demand characteristics
Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have external (ecological) validity?
Only watching videos - not real life situation - lacks the emotional connection - lacks mundane realism
Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have external (population) validity?
no - only really applicable to students
