Chapter 4 - Loftus & Palmer

Question 1

What was the aim of the loftus & Palmer study?

Answer 1

To investigate whether phrasing a question differently can influence the judgement of the speed of a car

Question 2

What method was used in the study?

Answer 2

A laboratory experiment

Question 3

What type of data was collected?

Answer 3

Quantitative, as well as being primary

Question 4

What level of data was collected?

Answer 4

Interval data (MPH)

Question 5

What experimental design was used?

Answer 5

Repeated Measures design

Question 6

What was the IV’s in experiment 1?

Answer 6

Different verbs were used

Question 7

Give examples of the words used in the experiment ?

5

Answer 7

Smashed
Hit
Contacted
Collided 
Bumped

Question 8

What were the IV’s in experiment 2?

Answer 8

Different verbs were used, in addition to the critical question of if there was “any broken glass”

Question 9

What was the mean speed estimated for the word “smashed”?

Answer 9

40.5mph

Question 10

What was the mean speed estimated for the word “collided”?

Answer 10

39.3mph

Question 11

What was the mean speed estimated for the word “bumped”?

Answer 11

38.1mph

Question 12

What was the mean speed estimated for the word “hit”?

Answer 12

34.0mph

Question 13

What was the mean speed estimated for the word “contacted”?

Answer 13

31.8mph

Question 14

How many participants were used?

Answer 14

45 student participants

Question 15

What were the films of?

Answer 15

They were seven film segments from the evergreen safety council of the Seattle police station, each segment lasting 5 to 30 seconds of car crashes (4 in which were staged

Question 16

How is the reliability for in this study?

2

Answer 16

• Highly controlled makes it replicable
• Showed that memory of an event can be distorted by information introduced afterwards e.g leading questions distorted memory

Question 17

How is the ecological validity?

3

Answer 17

• It is low in ecological validity due to it being a laboratory experiment
• In this study, the participants were shown films of car crashes which in reality, accidents happen spontaneously in which our memory would be much different.
• Also the films were in a controlled environment and memory may be better compared to reality in which memory may be distorted from stress of experiencing a real crash.

Question 18

Weakness of validity in this study?

Answer 18

The validity in this study may be affected through demand characteristics, with the participants thinking that they are suppose to remember glass in which may be an invalid way to demonstrate how leading questions can affect memory.

Question 19

Strength of validity in this study?

Answer 19

High in validity as the procedure was standardised e.g the films, tasks and questions asked

Question 20

What is the issue with ethnocentrism?

2

Answer 20

In this study ethnocentrism can be seen as an issue as it was a study that only consisted of university educated people which could show how their cognitive process works.
But the study focused on the physiognomy of the brain, it may not be ethnocentric as it focused on a species specific behavior.

Question 21

What is the problem with genralisability in this study?

Answer 21

The genralisability in the study is low as the sample was college students.

Question 22

How can you improve genralisability?

Answer 22

Loftus & Palmer could have collected samples through advertisments outside of the university or even to have collected the sample from the university library.

Question 23

What is the usefulness of this study?

Answer 23

It is useful towards police officers it helps them understand the best way to question witnesses without misleading/distorting their memory with exaggerated words and leading questions

Question 24

What are the ethical issues?

1

Answer 24

The findings are seen as ethically worthy as it contributes to the debate on how witnesses should/(not) be questioned in order to get correct information.