The Loftus & Palmer Study - Describe

Question 1

What was the experimental design?

Answer 1

Independent groups

Question 2

How many student participants did each experiment consist of?

Answer 2

Experiment 1 = 45 students
Experiment 2 = 150 students

Question 3

In experiment 1, how many film clips were participants shown?

Answer 3

• 7 film clips were shown of different traffic accidents.
• Each ranged from 5-30 seconds long.

Question 4

How many groups were there in experiment 1?

Answer 4

5 groups with 9 participants.

Question 5

In experiment 1, what was the crucial question in the questionnaire?

Answer 5

‘About how fast were the cars going when they ____ into each other?’
- Smashed.
- Bumped.
- Hit.
- Collided.
- Contacted.

Question 6

In experiment 1, what were the participants asked to do after receiving the crucial question?

Answer 6

Estimate the speed in MPH.

Question 7

What did experiment 2 investigate?

Answer 7

Investigated whether leading questions biased person’s response or altered memory.

Question 8

What was part 1 of experiment 2?

Answer 8

• Participants were shown a film of a multiple car crash. The accident itself lasted less than 4 seconds.
• Participants were divided into 3 groups of 50 and were asked a set of questions including the crucial question about speed.
  Group 1 = ‘smashed’
  Group 2 = ‘hit’
  Group 3 = control group, no question.

Question 9

What was part 2 of experiment 2?

Answer 9

• A week later the participants returned to the lab and were asked further questions.
• They were asked a critical question, ‘Did you see any broken glass?’
• There was no broken glass, but those who thought the cars were going faster may have expected there to have been.

Question 10

For experiment 1 findings, what was the mean speed estimates for the ‘smashed’ and ‘contacted’ conditions?

Answer 10

‘Smashed’ = 40.8 mph - highest estimated speed.
‘Contacted’ = 31.8 mph - lowest estimated speed.

Question 11

What were the findings of part 1 of experiment 2?

Answer 11

There were higher speed estimates in the ‘smashed’ condition, like experiment 1.

Question 12

What were the findings of part 2 of experiment 2?

Answer 12

‘Smashed’ - 16 saw glass.
‘Hit’ - 7 saw glass.
Control - 6 saw glass.

Participants in the ‘smashed’ condition were more than twice as likely to report seeing broken glass.

Question 13

What conclusions do Loftus & Palmer propose?

Answer 13

The form of a question can affect a witness’s answer to the question due to:
- Response bias factors = critical words influence a persons response.
- Their memory representation is altered = critical words change a person’s memory. Their perception is altered.

Question 14

What do the findings from experiment 2 conclude?

Answer 14

• The effect of a leading question is due to them altering the memory a person has for the event.
• Verbal labels cause a shift in the way information is remembered, causing it to be more similar to the suggestion given by the verbal label.