EWT: misleading information Flashcards
(23 cards)
who investigated leading questions?
Loftus + Palmer (1974)
what did participants have to do? (LQ)
watched film clips of car accidents + had to answer questions (e.g. describing speed of cars)
how many groups were there? (LQ)
5
what were the 5 verbs used in the question? (LQ)
contacted
bumped
hit
collided
smashed
what was the critical question? (LQ)
‘about how fast were the cars going when they [hit] each other?’
why is the critical question a leading question?
the verb used suggests the car’s speed
e.g. ‘hit’ suggests a higher speed than ‘contacted’
what was the speed for ‘contacted’?
31.8mph
(lowest)
what was the speed for ‘smashed’?
40.8mph
(highest)
what was Loftus + Palmer’s second experiment + the results from this?
~ participants were asked if they could recall seeing ‘broken glass’ at the scene of the incident
~ those in the ‘smashed’ condition were more likely to report seeing broken glass (even though there was none) than those in the ‘hit’ condition
what does the ‘response-bias explanation’ suggest?
wording of the question has no effect on memory, but simply influences how participants answer
e.g. the word ‘smashed’ encourages participants to choose a higher speed
what may happen if co-witnesses to a crime discuss it together?
their own EWT may become contaminated
what did Gabbert investigate?
investigated post-event discussion and contamination of EWT.
studied participants in pairs + each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from a different POV - each participant could see elements that their partner could not
what did participants in Gabbert’s study watch?
each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from a different POV - each participant could see elements that their partner could not
(e.g. only one participant could see the title of a book that a woman was holding)
after watching the video clip in Gabbert’s study, what did participants do?
both participants discussed the event then individually did a recall test
what % of participants in Gabbert’s study recalled aspects that they didn’t see, but picked up in discussion?
71%
when there was no discussion between partners, what % of participants recalled aspects they didn’t originally see?
0%
why do witnesses often go along with each other? what’s this phenomenon called?
to win social approval
they believe that their own memories are wrong and the other person is right
MEMORY CONFORMITY
name one strength of this research
useful real life applications
why may Loftus + Palmer’s tasks be seen as artificial?
video clips lack the stress of observing a real car accident- emotions can have an influence on memories, therefore this isn’t representative in a film clip
name 2 other limitations of this research
individual differences
demand characteristics
consequences of EWT
how does age impact EWT?
~ there is evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people when giving EWT
~ research studies often use younger people as the target participant, meaning that other age groups appear less accurate, as they are not well-represented in research
what did Anastasi + Rhodes discover?
people in age groups 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate than people in age group 55-78
how do demand characteristics impact EWT?
~ participants usually don’t want to let the researcher down + want to appear helpful/attentive
~ therefore sometimes they guess the answer when they’re not sure, which can severely impact the accuracy of results
