Loftus & Palmer and Grant COGNITIVE AS Flashcards
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Background
Many earlier studies of memory demonstrate how memories are not accurate records of our experiences. We try to fit past events into our excising representations of the world.
GRANT
Background
Godden and Badderly noticed that deep sea divers would consistently forget things when they were underwater, but upon surface they would recall their memory.
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Aim
To investigate how information provided to a witness after an event will influence their memory of the event.
GRANT
Aim
To investigate context-dependent memory effects on both recall and recognition.
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EXPERIMENT ONE
Method
Laboratory experiment.
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EXPERIMENT ONE
Design
Independent measures design.
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EXPERIMENT ONE
Participants
45 students from the university of Washington.
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EXPERIMENT ONE
Materials
7 video clips of car crashes and manipulated questionnaires.
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EXPERIMENT ONE
Procedure
Participants were shown 7 clips of car crashes and were then given a questionnaire.
One critical question in the questionnaire was “About how fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?” The 45 participants were split up into 5 groups of 9. Each group was given the same questions; however each group received the critical question with a different verb filling in the blank space.
These verbs were “smashed”, “collided”, “bumped”, “hit” and “contacted” and were also the independent variable. The dependent variable was the estimated speed of the car.
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EXPERIMENT ONE
Results
Results were in the form of quantitative data. Estimates of the cars speeds varied depending on what verb was used in the critical question.
Smashed = 40.5 Collided = 39.3 Bumped = 38.1 Hit = 34 Contacted = 31.8
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EXPERIMENT ONE
Conclusions
Participant’s estimates of the speed of the cars during the accident varied according to the verb used. There are 2 possible explanations for this.
One is response bias (the verb gives the participant a clue as to what the speed was if they were unclear as to what speed to estimate).
The other is memory distortion (the verb used altered the participants memory).
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EXPERIMENT TWO
Method
Laboratory experiment.
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EXPERIMENT TWO
Design
Independent measures.
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EXPERIMENT TWO
Sample
150 students.
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EXPERIMENT TWO
Materials
Video clip of the car crash and questionnaires.
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EXPERIMENT TWO
Procedure
All participants were shown a clip of a car crash and were then given a questionnaire to answer on the crash. It required them to describe the crash in their own words and then to answer questions on the incident.
The first 50 participants received the questionnaire with the critical question of “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” Another 50 participants received the question of “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” Finally, a control group of 50 participants received a questionnaire that did not ask about the speed of the cars.
A week later, all participants returned and answered a further 10 questions. The critical question amongst these was “Did you see any broken glass?”
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EXPERIMENT TWO
Results
As in experiment 1, participants who read the word “smashed” estimated a higher speed. More than twice as many people incorrectly remembered seeing broken glass having read the word “smashed” compared to those who read “hit” or didn’t answer a question on speed.
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EXPERIMENT TWO
Conclusions
It seems that post event information and questions actually become part of the memory for that event. Therefore, the wording of questions can distort memory.
Loftus and Palmer argue that two kinds of information go into a person’s memory of an event. The first is the information obtained from perceiving an event (e.g. witnessing a video of a car accident), and the second is the other information supplied to us after the event (e.g. the question containing hit or smashed).
Over time, the information from these two sources may be combined in such a way that we are unable to tell from which source some specific detail is recalled.
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Ethical Considerations
It could have been harmful for some participants to watch a car crash as it could be upsetting
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Validity
It doesn’t have much ecological validity because in real life situations, it can be upsetting to see a car crash which may cause the participant to have a different memory of it giving it a high usefulness. However, the laboratory conditions ensured that few extraneous variables could influence the outcome.
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Reliability
Very similar results were found for estimates of speed in both experiment one and two, therefore showing that the experiment is reliable.
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How it relates to the key theme
The key theme is memory. Loftus and Palmer links to this theme as the study provided evidence that information received after an event can significantly change the person’s perception of the event.
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How it relates to the cognitive area
It relates to the cognitive area as it investigates the cognitive processes of memory, specifically reconstructive memory.
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Debates
Psychology as a science
Usefulness
Ethical Issues
