Loftus And Plamet

Question 1

What were loftus and palmers two experiments investigating

Answer 1

The effects of language on memory and that information received after an event in the form of leading questions can change a persons memory of an event

Question 2

Explain experiment one in loftus and palmer

Answer 2

Lab experiment
Independent measures
45 participants 
5 conditions 
9 participants in each condition

Question 3

Explain the procedure in loftus and palmer experiment 1.

Answer 3

• All participants were shown the 7 film clips (4 contained crashes)
• they were given a two part questionnaire to complete after each clip
• each participants in the different conditions received one of five critical questions

Question 4

What were the two parts of the questionnaire given to participants in experiment one of lofts and palmer?

Answer 4

•Firstly to give an account of the accident they had just seen
•secondly to answer a set of questions relating to the accident
(Out of all the questions asked researchers were interested in the question about speed at the time of the accident)

Question 5

What were the critical questions in loftus and palmer experiment 1?

Answer 5

The critical questions were 'about how fast were the cars going when they xxxxx into each other?
Each condition had one of these words 
•contacted
•hit
•bumped
•collided
•smashed 
(researchers said the stronger the verb the higher the speed estimate)

Question 6

How was this study controlled?

Answer 6

• In order to counteract order effects the groups were presented with a different order of films
• the fewer questions asked the more likely it is that participants will guess purpose of the study, that’s why a series of questions were asked to participants when researches were only interested in the critical question
• this stops demand characterises

Question 7

What was the IV and DV and controls of experiment 1 in loftus and palmer?

Answer 7

• DV - the mean speed estimate in miles per hour, per condition
• IV - which verb condition the participants were tested in
• Control - all participants were shown the same videos, all given the same questionnaires (just with different critical questions)

Question 8

Actual speed of crash compared to mean estimated speed of crash in experiment 1 loftus and palmer.

What were the mean speed estimates in miles per hour in the 5 verb conditions

Answer 8

Film 1 - actual speed (20 mph)
        - mean estimated speed (37.7 mph)
Film 2 - actual speed (30 mph)
        -mean estimated speed (36.2 mph)
Film 3 - actual speed (40 mph)
       -mean estimated speed (39.7 mph)
Film 4 - actual speed (40mph)
       - mean estimated speed (36.1)

Smashed = 40.8
Collided = 39.3 
Bumped = 38.1 
Hit = 34.0
Contacted = 31.8

Question 9

What was the aim of experiment 2 in loftus and palmers study?

Answer 9

If participants who were asked about the ‘smashed’ condition would be more likely to say they saw broken glass compared to a ‘hit’ condition and a control condition with no verb.
P’s were asked this question a week after watching the filmed accident to test if memory of an event is effected as a result of leading questions providing extra information received after the event

Question 10

Research method and participants of experiment 2 in loftus and palmer.

Answer 10

Like experiment 1 it’s a lab experiment with independent measures

150 student participants
Divided into 3 groups of 50 for each condition

This experiment showed a clip of a multiple car crash
The clip lasted less than 1 minute and the crash less than 4 seconds

Question 11

Questionnaire 1 in experiment 2 loftus and palmer

Answer 11

Each participant completes two questionnaires

There were 3 conditions for questionnaire 1
50 p’s were asked how fast cars were going when
‘Smashed into Each other
50 p’s were asked the same question with the verb ‘hit’
And 50 p’s were asked the same question with no verb as this is the control group

Questionnaire one was completed straight after viewing clip. This contained p’s having to describe the accident in their own words and answer a series of questions.
Out of these questions the critical one asked p’s to estimate speed of vehicles

Question 12

Questionnaire 2 in experiment 2 loftus and palmer

Answer 12

The second questionnaire contained 10 questions about the accident and the critical question was ‘did you see any glass - yes or no ‘ this was asked 1 week after watching clip (there was no glass in the clip)

Question 13

Results of experiment 2 in loftus and palmer

Answer 13

Participants in the smashed condition gave a significantly higher estimate of speed (10.46mph) compared to those in the smashed condition (8mph)

Participants in the smashed condition also were significantly more likely to answer yes to the condition ‘did you see Broken glass?’

Response - yes -no
Smashed -16 -34
Hit -7 -43
Control -6 -44

Question 14

Validity and reliability in loftus and palmer.

Answer 14

Validity - highly controlled lab experiment - high design validity, low ecological validity

Reliability - highly controlled so replicable
- p’s tested a week apart so has test-retest reliability

Volunteer sample through advertisement

Question 15

How does Loftus and palmer fall in the cognitive area

Answer 15

It’s investigating the cognitive process of memory - reconstructive Nature of memory

Question 16

Grant et al (1998) - Aim

Answer 16

Grant aimed to measure context dependant memory effects on coding and retrieval

Question 17

What was Grants participants, conditions and research methods?

Answer 17

This study uses independent measures as participants completed all conditions

Two controls were back ground noise was used instead of music
And both test and study conditions had both a silent and noisy condition to ensure it was not a case that noise interfered with encoding material

Participants were recruited through student experimenters (opportunity) - bias as experimenters are selecting people they already know

• there were 39 participants all together (17 females and 23 males) with four conditions, silent - noisy, silent - silent, noisy - silent, noisy - noisy.

Each student experiment randomly allocated p’s to one of the four conditions

Question 18

What was the task in grants study?

Answer 18

The participants read a two page article on psychoimmunology.

Recall was operationalised by a short answer recall rest and recognition was operationalised by using a multiple choice test.

The recall test 10 short answer questions were created, each question required a one word or short phrase answer. This was always taken first to ensure no information was recalled or reworded from the multiple choice questions - this was a CONTROL
The recognition test was made up of 16 multiple choice questions with 4 choices

Question 19

What was the Procedure of grants study?

Answer 19

Each participant was tested individually, they were read aloud standardised instructions and told to read the article once and could highlight and underline as they read.
As a control participants wore headphones in all conditions

The noisy condition was played at a moderately loud level - the recording was lunchtime in a uni cafeteria - some words were audible but not complete sentences.

Between test and study conditions had a break of 2 mins without headphones - control

Question 20

What were the results from grants study?

Answer 20

Recall (short answer tests)
Silent study noisy study
Silent test 6.7 5.4
Noisy test 4.6 6.2

Recall (short answer tests)
Silent study noisy study
Silent test 14.3 12.7
Noisy test 12.7 14.3

Question 21

Validity and reliability in grants study!

Answer 21

Validity - highly controlled so less ecological validity

Reliability - highly controlled so replicable can be tested for test re-test reliability

Question 22

Moray procedure

Answer 22

Three lab experiments conducted