Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical Flashcards
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
low generalisability
age driving ed
In experiment one there was 45 students and experiment two had 150 students therefore this is not generalizable to the wider population in terms of
age the students are young
and driving experience which is limited
and education experienced which students are good at with memory and questions
Therefore be results that leading questions distort memory cannot be applied to the whole population
washington uni ethnocentric
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
aims
experement 1
To investigate how information given to a witness post event, will influence their memory of said event
experement 2
To gather additional insight to the origin of the different speed estimates in experiment one if these are due to distortion or response bias
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
High generalizability to young students
The study has high generalizability due to all participants in both experiment 1 (45 ppts) and experiment 2 (150 ppts) being students therefore it is generalizable to younger educated population groups
all sexes in study so generalise results to all sexes
therefore you can generalize the results that leading questions distorting memory to the young educated population
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
High test retest reliability
( do Either experiment one or experiment too as an example don’t do both unless it is a 12 mark question)
Mercedes high test retest reliability due to vote experiment of one and two having standardized procedures
1:
The 45 students from the University of Washington were separated into Five groups of nine participants each
Watching a film describing what happened in the film questions and the critical question which was
How fast will the cars going when they …… each other?
Depending on the group depends on which verb was used:
Either: smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted
These questions in the critical question was repeated for each of the 7 films (4 were staged, all from seattle P.D and evergreen saftey council) that ranged from 5 to 30 seconds in length
2:
the 150 students were divided into three groups of 50 participants
each they were shown a one minute film with multiple car accident
each group was given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accents in their own words and then the critical question:
group 1 : how fast will the cars going when they hit each other?
group 2: how fast will the cars going when they smashed into each other
group 3 : they were not asked about vehicle speed
One week later all participants Returned and were given 10 Questions
on a random question number the question was: did you see any broken glass yes or no (there wasnt any)
Due to both experiment one and experiment to having a standardized procedure it means that the study has high test retest reliability as it makes it easier to replicate the study
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
— mundane realism
The study is not applicable to real life
as in a real eyewitness testimony there are more emotions due to seeing victims
and there is time before questions
and opportunity to discuss opinions with others
unlike in experiment one and two
therefore the study task is not accurate or applicable to real life therefore giving it low mundane realism
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
High internal validity controls
The study had high internal validity due to controls such as
different orders of films for each group in experiment one which decreases the order effects
and the control group and experiment two so it the confounding variable that the different types of verbs cause them to think the glasses broken is obsolete
Therefore due to these controls over extraneous and confounding variables it means that cause and effects can be established between leading questions and distortion of memory therefore giving the study high internal validity
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
ethics +/- protection from halm with the exp 1 films
+
4/7 films in experiment one were staged and the rest were recycled footage from evergreen safety council and Seattle police department
so nobody got hurt in the films for the purpose of the study therefore there was protection from physical harm which meant it had good ethics
—
Participants may have known as it was an experiment as there were volunteers
but they didn’t know the 4/7 films were staged so watching them could have impacted negatively on their psychological health
therefore there may not have been protection from psychological harm as there was no debrief on the matter afterwards therefore it is unethical
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
Low inter rate reliability
The results and conclusion is were not agreed on buy multiple experimenters analysis of the data nor were their multiple experiments at all meaning that the study had low integrate reliability as there were not multiple experimenters to agree on the data
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
conclusion and app
In conclusion
Experiment 1 found that a single changed verb can interfere with the participants estimate of Speed
and that people aren’t very good at judging how fast vehicles are travelling anyway so more susceptible to change when a different verb is used to influence the answer
and the actual speed accounted for little of the variation
experement 2
Misconcluded that’s the memory of an event was changed by leading questions (distortion) rather than just response bias and the wording of the question affected the ppts memory of the event
those who heard the verbs smashed were twice as likely to report seeing Broken Glass
they suggested of there are two kinds of information that goes into a person’s memory of an event
first a person’s own perception
secondly information supplied after the event such as leading questions
An application of this study is that the results were used to form the delvin report in 1976
this meant that nobody could be prosecuted on the basis of one eyewitness testimony due to their inaccurities as false convictions were common with these cases
the delvin report 1976 among similar laws are still used today in courts around the world
Another application is that the police should not open a case based on the report of one eyewitness as the study shows that they can be inaccurate therefore this may be a waste of police time and they should wait until further evidence comes to light before starting their investigation
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
Experiment One results
film n• actual spped mean est. speed (no verb)
1 20 37.7
2 30 36.2
3 40 39.7
4 40 36.1
Speed estimates mean mph and verbs
smashed 40.5
collided 39.3
bumped 38.1
hit 39.0
contacted 31.8
Loftus and Palmer 1974 classical
Experiment 2 result
Response smashed group hit group control group
yes 16 7 6
no 34 43 44
