Loftus & Palmer and Grant COGNITIVE AS Flashcards
L AND P
Background
Many earlier studies of memory demonstrate how memories are not accurate records of our experiences. We try to fit past events into our excising representations of the world.
GRANT
Background
Godden and Badderly noticed that deep sea divers would consistently forget things when they were underwater, but upon surface they would recall their memory.
L AND P
Aim
To investigate how information provided to a witness after an event will influence their memory of the event.
GRANT
Aim
To investigate context-dependent memory effects on both recall and recognition.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT ONE
Method
Laboratory experiment.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT ONE
Design
Independent measures design.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT ONE
Participants
45 students from the university of Washington.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT ONE
Materials
7 video clips of car crashes and manipulated questionnaires.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT ONE
Procedure
Participants were shown 7 clips of car crashes and were then given a questionnaire.
One critical question in the questionnaire was “About how fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?” The 45 participants were split up into 5 groups of 9. Each group was given the same questions; however each group received the critical question with a different verb filling in the blank space.
These verbs were “smashed”, “collided”, “bumped”, “hit” and “contacted” and were also the independent variable. The dependent variable was the estimated speed of the car.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT ONE
Results
Results were in the form of quantitative data. Estimates of the cars speeds varied depending on what verb was used in the critical question.
Smashed = 40.5 Collided = 39.3 Bumped = 38.1 Hit = 34 Contacted = 31.8
L AND P
EXPERIMENT ONE
Conclusions
Participant’s estimates of the speed of the cars during the accident varied according to the verb used. There are 2 possible explanations for this.
One is response bias (the verb gives the participant a clue as to what the speed was if they were unclear as to what speed to estimate).
The other is memory distortion (the verb used altered the participants memory).
L AND P
EXPERIMENT TWO
Method
Laboratory experiment.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT TWO
Design
Independent measures.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT TWO
Sample
150 students.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT TWO
Materials
Video clip of the car crash and questionnaires.
L AND P
EXPERIMENT TWO
Procedure
All participants were shown a clip of a car crash and were then given a questionnaire to answer on the crash. It required them to describe the crash in their own words and then to answer questions on the incident.
The first 50 participants received the questionnaire with the critical question of “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” Another 50 participants received the question of “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” Finally, a control group of 50 participants received a questionnaire that did not ask about the speed of the cars.
A week later, all participants returned and answered a further 10 questions. The critical question amongst these was “Did you see any broken glass?”
