Loftus and Palmer Ex1 Flashcards
Aim
To investigate whether a verb used in the same question will alter the response and recall of the incident for the participant. Verbs such as ‘smashed’ will be interchangeable with verbs such as ‘hit’ or ‘collided’
What was the method used for the experiment?
Lab experiment
What were the 5 conditions?
- ‘smashed’
- ‘collided’
- ‘bumped’
- ‘contacted’
- ‘hit’
What was the critical question?
About how fast was were the cars going when they ____ each other?
Independent variables
The verb used to describe the crash in the question on the questionnaire.
Dependant variables
The speed in mph of how fast the participants estimated the cars to be going when they watched them crash in a video played prior to answering the question.
Explain why the experimenters chose to use staged crashes instead of real ones?
- So that they know exactly how fast the cars were going and could manipulate the situation to what they need.
- Participants may have seen the crash before it was publicised.
Describe the sample
- 45 students
- Participated in groups of various sizes.
- Ages not stated but estimated to be 18+
Details of the film footage used in the 1st experiment
7 filmed depicted a traffic incident which were segments of longer driver’s education films borrowed from Evergreen Safety Council and Seattle Police Department. The length ranged from 5-30 seconds.
Details of the task they had to do
Participants watched the film and answered a questionnaire based on each one which asked them to write an account and then answered a series of questions about the accident. Critical question about the accident.
Ordering of the film for each participant
A different ordering of the seven films were presented to each group of participants.
How was recall measured?
Recall was measured based on the speed estimate that the participants thought the cars were travelling at. (only going on 12mph)
The actual speed of each film compared to the estimated speed of the crash
20mph - 37.7mph
30mph - 36.2mph
40mph - 39.7mph
40mph - 36.1mph
Estimated speed of the cars based on the verb used in the critical question
smashed - 40.5
collided - 39.3
bumped - 38.1
hit - 34
contacted - 31
Conclusion
The wording of the question did affect the estimate of speed, with the more severe sounding verbs producing higher estimates. The actual speed of the vehicle accounted for little of the variance in estimates. Loftus suggested two reasons for why leading questions affect memory which is distortion and response bias.
