Reliability of a cognitive process

Question 1

What is the cognitive process? Why would it be unreliable?

Answer 1

Memory.
Because memory is reconstructive, it means that we don’t recall things for what it is.
For example, we use schemas - mental representations to predict what we will expect based on experience and prior knowledge.
The information we recall can easily be distorted and mixed so it can be unreliable.
However there were cases where memory can be reliable.

Question 2

Aim of Loftus and Palmer

Answer 2

To investigate the effect of leading questions on memory recall

Question 3

Method of Loftus and Palmer

Answer 3

45 American university students, similar age, similar backgrounds

Lab experiment
- The participants watched a clip of a car crash
- Participants then answered a series of questions about the** car crash**
- Some were filler questions
- One question was the critical question. The critical question was “About how fast were the cars going when they…into each other?”
The … could have been smashed, hit, collided, bumped or contacted
Participants only experienced one of the verbs in the question.

DV: estimation of speed given by the participants of the words smashed, hit, collided, bumped, contacted

Question 4

Findings of Loftus and Palmer

Answer 4

Participants estimated smashed as fastest and contacted as slowest

Question 5

Conclusion of Loftus and Palmer

Answer 5

Leading questions do effect memory recall. In this case changing the verb in the question to smashed gave a higher estimation of speed by the participants.