Paper 2 - Lofts and Palmer on eyewitness testimony

Question 1

What was the aim of this study

Answer 1

To investigate the accuracy of memory and in particular the effect of leading questions on memory

Question 2

What is a leading question

Answer 2

question that suggests to the wines what answer is desired / leads them to the desired answer

Question 3

What was the design of experiment 1

Answer 3

• laboratory experiment
• independent measures design
• snapshot study

Question 4

What is the IV and DV for experiment 1 ?

Answer 4

• IV: The verb used in the vital question “how fast were the cars going when they [ ]”
• DV: How fast the pps said the car was going when they [ ] in mph from the film clips.

Question 5

What was the sample of experiment 1

Answer 5

• 45 American college students
• divided into 5 groups
• opportunity sampling

Question 6

What was the materials of experiment 1

Answer 6

7 clips of car accidents into a brief film
questionnaire

Question 7

What was the procedure of experiment 1

Answer 7

1. pps were shown a film of 7 car accident clips and were asked to describe the accident and then given a series of questions about the film. the vial question ‘ how fast were the cars going when they [ ] each other ?’ was asked in the questionnaire.
   2.pps were in 5 groups, each group was given a different verb:
   ‘hit’
   ‘contacted’
   ‘smashed’
   ‘bumped
   ‘collided’

Question 8

What were the results of experiment 1

Answer 8

• The mean speed estimates were faster for those given the verb ‘smashed’ then ‘contacted’
• smashed- 40.8mph
• collided- 39.3mph
• bumped- 38.1mph
• hit-34.0mph
• contacted- 31.8mph

Question 9

what are the discussion points of experiment 1

Answer 9

• the verb the pps were given influnces/biases their response, e.g. smashes suggests it was noisy and therefore they were travelling at a higher speed.
• memory is altered as the verb changes perception, the verb suggests a more serious event so the event is remembered in a more serious way.

Question 10

what was the aim of experiment 2

Answer 10

to see if leading questions changed a persons subsequent memory of the event they witnessed

Question 11

What was the design of experiment 2

Answer 11

• lab experiment
• independent measures design
• longitudinal study

Question 12

What is the IV and DV in experiment 2 ?

Answer 12

• IV: The verb used in the vital question “how fast were the cars going when they [ ]”
• DV: How fast the pps said the car was going when they [ ] in mph from the film clips. Also, whether the pps thought they saw broken glass in the film clips

Question 13

What was the sample of experiment 2

Answer 13

• 150 American college students
• opportunity sampling

Question 14

what are the materials of experiment 2

Answer 14

a one minute film clip of 4 car crash clips
questionnaire

Question 15

what was the procedure of experiment 2

Answer 15

1.pps watched the 1 minute car film clip and were asked to describe the car crash and answer a series of specific questions including the speed question.
2. The groups were split into 3 groups of 50.
group one- smashed
group 2-hit
group 3- asked no question as a control group
3. one week later the pps retuned to the lab and were asked if they saw any broken glass in a questionnaire with 10 questions

Question 16

what was the results of experiment 2

Answer 16

• smashed-10.46mph
• hit-8mph
• smashed- 16yes, 34no
• hit- 7yes, 43no
• control- 6 yes, 44no

Question 17

what are the discussion points of experiment 2

Answer 17

• memory takes in 2 types of information, our personal perception during the even and external information after the event.
• overtime these combine into one memory altering the true memory of the real events.

Question 18

evaluate the sample in this study

Answer 18

• strengths- the pps were easily obtained and the large sample in experiment 2 improves population validity
• weaknesses- unique characteristics within the sample, e.g. intelligence and memory levels so may be less effected by leading questions. older people’s memory is affected by source monitoring (where the info came from), therefore they may become more prone to the effect of leading questions. we cannot generalise to the older and younger.

Question 19

evaluate the ethics in this study

Answer 19

• informed consent - they didn’t know the true aim of the study (deception), however this allowed for less demand characteristics
• deception- lied to about the aim, however its seen as acceptable as it caused them no known harm
• harm- no known harm but could negatively effect some people (ptsd)

Question 20

evaluate the validity in this study

Answer 20

• high control of extraneous variables and standardised procedures (same questionnaire) means high internal validity.
• low ecological validity due to the lab environment and this also may lead to demand characteristics which will also decrease validity of the results.

Question 21

evaluate the reliability in this study

Answer 21

• high external and internal validity due to the laboratory design.
• This means that extraneous variables were highly controlled so that there was no distracting causing unnatural behaviour contributing to the reliability of the study.
• Also, the standardised procedures such as the same question to each pps with 10 questions in and the important imbedded question.
• This improves internal and external reliability.

Question 22

evaluate the data type in this study

Answer 22

• quantitative data was collected allowing for objective numbers that can be easily concluded into graphs/charts.
• however, it gives no detail into why pps estimated their speed/ thought they saw glass.
• it also suggests simplistic answers to complex psychological topics.

Question 23

what relation does this study have to the nature/nurture debate

Answer 23

fits with the nurture side of the debate as leading question affect the memory. the environment changed the answer given, not biological reasons.

Question 24

what’s the usefulness of the research behind this study

Answer 24

• real life applications to influence the development of the cognitive interview technique-to avoid leading questions.
• important application in regards to the convictions being based largely on unsound eye witness testimonies
• innocence project-mistaken ewt contributed to 71% of wrongfully convicted people on the usa

Question 25

how does this support psychology as a science

Answer 25

• lab experiment means a high level of control over the environment-making it valid (films counterbalanced to reduce order effects)
• high reliability due to standardised procedures.
• objective quantitative data (speed in mph and amount who saw broken glass)