Preview

Loftus and Palmer Study

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
778 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Loftus and Palmer Study
Argue - There are variables that may affect memory and recall.

Aim - How information provided after an event in the form of leading questions may effect peoples memories.

Experiment 1

Participants - 45 students from the University of Washington.
Procedure - Participants shown seven videos of car crashes ranging from 4 to 30 seconds long. The videos were excerpts from drivers ed courses so the researchers were aware of the speeds of the cars. The videos were shown to the participants in random order. After each video participants were given a questionnaire which asked them to give an account of the film they had seen. Then they were asked to answer some questions based on what they had seen. Most of the questions were 'filler questions' which were not analysed by the researchers. The one critical question asked was: How fast were the cars going when they __________ into each onther? The space (__________) was filled with one of five verbs: Smashed, Collided, Bumped, Hit, Contacted. The participants were split in to five groups one for each verb.
Results - Verb|Mean Estimate. Smashed|40.8, Collided|39.3, Bumped|38.1, Hit|34.0, Contacted|31.8.
Discussion - Loftus and Palmer argue that memories are based on two types of imformation: What we percieve at the time of the event and what we find out after the event. They argue that what they hear after the event can distort our memories. In this experiment loftus and palmer argue that two things can be happening: Distortion and Response Bias. Distortion: The verbed used may lead the participant to amend their memory. For example the word smashed may lead the participants to estimate the speed higher than it actually was. Response Bias: (a form of demand characteristics) The participants may not have been sure about the speed and so they may have adjusted their answer to fit the researchers expectations.
In the above experiment the researchers were uncertain whether their prompts altered the participants

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    D. Negative cognitions and mood after event. Must have at least two identified, which were…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    McCloskey, M., & Zaragoza, M. (1985). Misleading Post Event Information and Memory for Events: Arguments and Evidence against Memory Impairment Hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,…

    • 2876 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    11. "Personal Event Memory." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. .…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gary Wells’ experiment was in regards to reinforcing the witnesses’ memory. Wells had two groups of subjects that watched a low quality video of man committing a crime. After the video, the first subjects were asked to identify the man in the video from a photo lineup. With no reinforcement, the subjects were rather insecure with their selection. The second group of subjects were asked to watch the same video and identify the man from a photo lineup. With reinforcement from the conductor of the experiment,…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Loftus did another study in 1975 which aim to prove lhat distortion of memory was a…

    • 590 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Loftus and Burns (1982) supports the findings of Loftus (1979). Participants were allocated to one of two conditions. One set of participants watched a violent short film where a boy was shot in the head whereas the other set of participants watched a non-violent short film of a crime. Similarly In this experiment they found that Participants were less accurate in recall when they saw the violent short film than those who watched the non-violent movie.…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The findings of this experiment suggest different results from the original experiment carried out by Loftus and Palmer in 1974, as there was no significant difference between the estimated speeds between the two groups because the results were not statically different. The descriptive results showed that the participants in the smashed group estimated a higher speed than the participants of the contacted group, (smashed group estimated a speed of 61.375 whereas the contacted group estimated a speed of 49.5), however the Mann-Whitney U test values indicated that the difference wasn’t significant enough to differentiate between the two conditions and so the difference was due to chance. The results reject the experimental hypothesis and support the null hypothesis that states that the use of the word “smashed” in the critical question will have no effect on the speed estimated. As my results are different to the original experiment carried out by Loftus and Palmer I suspect that there were some limitations in my attempt to replicate the experiment.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nt1310 Unit 2 Assignment

    • 3487 Words
    • 14 Pages

    1. Most current studies aimed at understanding human memory are conducted within a framework known as information-processing theory. This approach makes use of modern computer science and related fields to provide models that help psychologists understand the processes involved in memory. The general principles of the information processing approach to memory include the notion that memory involves three distinct processes. The first process, encoding, is the process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory. The second process, storage, is the process of keeping or maintaining information in memory. The final process, retrieval, is the process of bringing to mind information…

    • 3487 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Loftus was concerned with how subsequent information could affect an eyewitness testimony (EWT) which is a legal term, referring to the use of eyewitness to give evidence in court. EWT can be influenced by misleading information in terms of both visual imagery and wording of questions. This could lead to faulty or incorrect convictions. If someone is imposed to new info during the interval between witnessing the event and recalling it, this info may have marked effects on what they recall. Original memory can be modified.…

    • 526 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. How is an automobile accident evaluated. How do they know how fast a car that was involved in an accident was going? Do they make measurements of skid marks, do they perform calculations, and/or do they have tables and charts to decipher the data? What percentage of the investigated accidents involves speeding?…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cognitive Approach

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A main strength of cognitive psychology is that this approach has tended to use a scientific approach through the use of laboratory experiments. A strength of using laboratory experiments is that they are high in control therefore researchers are able to establish cause and effect. For example Loftus and Palmer were able to control the age of the participants, the use of video and the location of the experiment. All participants were asked the same questions (apart from changes in the critical words), and the position of the key question in the second was randomised. Furthermore, such standardised experiments are easy to test for reliability. However, as many cognitive studies are carried out in laboratory settings they can lack ecological validity. When cognitive processes such as memory and theory of mind are studied in artificial situations it may be difficult to generalise the findings to everyday life.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The study of memory dates back as far as the time of Ancient Greece, however, the birth of the study of memory is often credited to Ebbinghaus, who concentrated his research on memory store and capacity. The study of memory has had a long history, and still there are many myths associated with memory processes and the overall potential of memory. This paper will address one of the misconceptions which assumes that memory is a continuous tape of personal history. It will be shown that this is merely a false belief and that the act of remembering is not as simply as replaying a tape, rather memory is malleable and may be altered by a number of occurrences (Offer, 2000).…

    • 2572 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Loftus, E., & Palmer, J. (1974). Reconstruction of auto-mobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 13, 585-589.…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    * Kulik and Brown have described a special type of remembering called ‘flashbulb memory’, which is where the insignificant details surrounding highly emotional and shocking events (e.g. the destruction of…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Colomlubus

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Questions of Fact: These are questions that ask you to recall particular details or events from…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays