Puzzolo et al. (line ups) Flashcards
What are false memories?
- refers to cases in which people remember events differently from the way it happened
What do false memories include?
- eye witnesses can provide very compelling legal testimony, but susceptible to errors/biases
- held with high confidence
- vivid
- some parts of the memory can be reconstructed
- person may remember events that never happened at all
Use of children in psych studies
strengths:
- less demand characteristics
- less social desirability
weaknesses:
- issues with language and comprehension
- consent required from parents
What are the predictions of this study
- children and adults have similar rate of correct identification for cartoon faces
- children produce lower correct identification rate for human faces compared to adults
- children will have a lower rejection rate compared to adults for both cartoon and human faces
CHILDREN sample
- 59 young children
- 4 - 7 yrs of age
- mean age = 4.98 years
(SD = 0.82) - 21 fem, 38 males
- recruited from pre-kindergarten
- came from 3 private schools in eastern Ontario, Canada
ADULT sample
- 53 adults
- 17-30 yrs of age
- 36 fem, 17 male
- mean age = 20.54 (SD = 3.34)
- recruited from Introductory Psychology Participant pool from Eastern Ontario University
Research method, IVs, and DVs
- Research method: laboratory experiment
- IV’s manipulated:
–> age (young children vs adults)
–> target (cartoon vs human)
–> line up type (target present vs rejection) - target absent
DV’s manipulated:
–> correct identification of the cartoon or human face or the rejection
Demographics and cartoon watching form
- participant’s age
- gender
- primary language
- ethnicity
- no. of children in households and their ages
- amount of time spent watching two target cartoons used in the study
HUMAN FACE TARGETS
Targets:
- 1 female Caucasian university student (22 yrs)
- 1 male Caucasian university student (22 yrs)
Filming:
- each human target was filmed completing an everyday task for 6 second video
- female = brushing hair in bathroom
- male = puts coat on exiting bathroom
- each video provided 2-3 sec close up of individual’s face
- target video filmed in color
Line ups
Target present:
- face target, foil, foil, foil
Target absent:
- foil, foil, foil, foil + face target
HUMAN FACE FOILS
- each human target = photographed in a different outfit than what was worn during video clip
- 90 female faces, 90 male faces were selected
- selected based on similar appearance in terms of:
–> general facial structure
–> hair length
–> color - 3 rates selected the 4 foils for each target
- foils = black & white
- videos = in color
- targets and foils were closely cropped like their face, neck, top of their shoulders was photographed
Targets (cartoons & human faces)
Cartoons:
- Go Diego Go
- Dora the Explorer
Human faces:
- Male: putting on coat
- Female: brushing hair
Cartoon targets
- 1 fem, 1 male cartoon character
- 6 sec clip of following were used:
–> Dora the explorer talking to audience
–> Go Diego Go putting on pair of gloves for safety
–> each video is 2-3 sec close up of target’s character face, involved no other characters
–> video clips in color
–> video sound was muted as there no sound with human face videos
Line up presentation
- each target line up was presented
- simultaneous procedure was used to present the line up
*each line up: all pictures shown at once - target-present conditions: photograph of the target along with 3 other foils were presented
- target-absent conditions: target was replaced with similar foil and target replacement was place in same position
- each target’s line up position was randomized
- also included silhouette to show possibility of absent target
- each pp saw 4 videos in random order
- pps were showed 1 photo array and position of target was counter-balanced across photo arrays
- videos and photo arrays displayed on 13-inch laptop screens using Microsoft PowerPoint program
Line up administrators
- experiments were “neat” in dressing but not overly formal
- experimenters wore professionals - casual clothing (eg - sweater, blouse, dress-pants)
- 3 female experimenters showed children video clips and photo arrays