Loftus and Palmer's study

Question 1

What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 1

To investigate the effect of language on memory (in particular leading questions)

Question 2

What was the expectation of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What are leading questions?

Answer 3

Questions that increase the likelihood that an individual’s schema will influence them to give a desired answer

Question 4

What is a schema?

Answer 4

Preconceived prior ideas/ experiences/ knowledge about a topic

Question 5

What is false memory syndrome?

Answer 5

Memory’s reconstructed due to misleading information/leading questions

Question 6

What was the sample of Experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 6

45 participants - split into 5 groups of 9 - undergraduates from the university of Washington in Seattle

Question 7

What was the DV of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 7

An estimate of the speed that the cars were going at

Question 8

What was the IV of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 8

The verb used in the critical question:
smashed
Contacted
Bumped
Hit 
Collided

Question 9

What was the procedure of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 9

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”

Question 10

What was the mean speed estimate for the verb smashed and the verb contacted?

Answer 10

Smashed = 40.5
contacted = 31.8

Question 11

What were the conclusions of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 11

Participants are not goof at estimating speeds of moving vehicles
the intensity of the verb impacts our speed estimates

Question 12

Outline Loftus and Palmer’s two possible interpretations of the results

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

What was the IV of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 13

The verb used in critical question:
smashed
hit
control group not asked critical question

Question 14

What was the DV of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 14

The speed estimate and whether or not they saw broken glass.

Question 15

What was the sample of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 15

150 participants split into 3 groups (undergraduates from Washington university in Seattle)

Question 16

What was the procedure (part 1) of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

What was the procedure (part 2) of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What were the mean estimates of speed for subjects questioned with the verbs smashed and hit?

Answer 18

smashed = 10.46 mph
hit = 8 mph

Question 19

What were the results of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study? (in terms of smashed glass)

Answer 19

Smashed = 16 said yes, 34 said no
hit = 7 said yes, 43 said no'
control = 6 said yes, 44 said no

Question 20

What was the conclusion of experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer’s study?

Answer 20

Evidence of reconstructive memory due to questioning - changing person’s schema for clip

Question 21

How did Loftus and Palmer explain their results for Experiment 2?

Answer 21

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)

Question 22

In what ways did Loftus and Palmer’s study uphold ethical guidelines?

Answer 22

Confidentiality
debrief
right to withdraw

Question 23

In what ways did Loftus and Palmer’s study break ethical guidelines?

Answer 23

protection from harm
deception
informed consent

Question 24

Was Loftus and Palmer’s study ethnocentric?

Answer 24

Yes - only US culture and only middle-upper classes - even difficult to generalise to other English speaking cultures

Question 25

Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have internal reliability?

Answer 25

Yes, was almost totally standardised and was controlled for order effects and demand characteristics

Question 26

Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have external reliability?

Answer 26

Study 1 - alright, gave a reasonable consistent effect - could have been better
study 2 - clearly showed an effect however could have been more.

Question 27

Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have internal validity?

Answer 27

not necessarily - could have been measuring participant variables
could have been measure of conformity - demand characteristics

Question 28

Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have external (ecological) validity?

Answer 28

Only watching videos - not real life situation - lacks the emotional connection - lacks mundane realism

Question 29

Did Loftus and Palmer’s study have external (population) validity?

Answer 29

no - only really applicable to students