Paper2: Cognitive-Loftus and Palmer

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

ability to store information presented to us and to be able to use that information at some future time to influence our behaviour.

Question 2

Describe the 2 aims to Loftus and Palmer

Answer 2

• look at the influence that asking leading questions has on memory
• whether changing words in a question affects a person’s recall immediately or long term

Question 3

What happened in experiment 1?

Answer 3

• 7 clips shown of traffic accidents
• fill in questionnaire
  ‘How fast was the car travelling at when it …?’
  contacted, hit, bumped, collided, and smashed

Question 4

What was the IV in Experiment1?

Answer 4

• verb in the question chosen
  contacted, hit, bumped, collided, and smashed

Question 5

What was the DV in experiment1?

Answer 5

• measured the estimated speed the participant gave

Question 6

What happened in Experiment2?

Answer 6

• 1clip of car crashes
• 2 questionaires given
• 1 group asked speed when smashed
• 1 group asked speed when hit
• control group not asked about speed
• 1week later asked if ‘there was broken glass’
• no broken glass

Question 7

What were the results in experiment1?

Answer 7

• estimated the speed higher when the verb was more aggressive
• smashed = 41mph
• contacted = 32mph

Question 8

What were the results in experiment 2?

Answer 8

• 16 ‘smashed’ = yes broken glass
• 7 ‘hit’ = yes broken glass
• 6 control = yes broken glass
• ‘smashed’ had higher speed than ‘hit’

Question 9

Describe the conclusions to Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 9

• leading questions had an impact on responses given
• leading questions changed recall
• ‘smashed’ made more difference to memory rather than ‘hit’

Question 10

What were the strengths to Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 10

• standardised due to laboratory experiment
• participants were all same age
• realistic to police questioning after an accident
• high reliability

Question 11

What were the weaknesses to Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 11

• ecological validity is low, not shown real car crashes
• sample was limited to only students
• not generalisable
• estimations of speed was too variable

Question 12

Describe the ethics of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 12

• triggering to see car crashes
• slightly deceived as they thought they were investigating leading questions

Question 13

How can Loftus and Palmer be considered as useful?

Answer 13

• real life implications
• police can use this for interviewing

Question 14

How was loftus deterministic?

Answer 14

• eye witness testimony was affected by the leading question

Question 15

How was Loftus situational?

Answer 15

• does not measure personality
• verb affected ewt