Created by Dhara Bechra
over 7 years ago
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Question | Answer |
Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Eyewitness Testimony | Memory is reconstructive. It investigates the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and the factors affecting it. |
Aims & Research Questions | To investigate the effect of questioning on witness memory of a car accident. Investigate effect of leading question on eyewitness memory. Investigate whether leading questions distort memory of an event. |
Research Method | 2 Lab experiments Independent Design IV: verb used in critical question DV: mean estimate speed of car |
Sample | Experiment 1: 45 students from USA randomly allocated to 5 groups of 9. Experiment 2: 150 students randomly allocated to 3 groups of 50. |
Procedure | Experiment 1: students watched video of car accident. After pp's asked to write what they had seen, then given a questionnaire which included a critical question. 'How fast were the cars going when they ****** into each other?' |
Procedure (2) | Pp's divided into 5 groups and each received different variation of the same question, containing the verb 'contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed'. |
Procedure (3) | Experiment 2: 150 pp's shown film of car accident and given a questionnaire. Group 1 asked question containing word 'hit'. Group 2 asked question containing word 'smashed'. Group 3 (control group) not asked question. |
Procedure (4) | Week later, pp's returned and asked further questions, including critical question 'Did you see any broken glass?' (no broken glass in film) |
Results | Experiment 1: The leading question did affect pp's perception of speed. Pp's who heard word 'smashed' gave a higher estimate than those who heard word 'contacted' or 'hit'. |
Results (2) | Experiment 2: Pp's who thought car was traveling faster, more likely to produce false memory of seeing broken glass than others. Suggests their memory was changed by the way they were questioned. |
Conclusion | Loftus and Palmer concluded that the semantics of the question became integrated with memory of event. |
Evaluation | High control Quantitative data collected Low EV- doesn't represent real life settings Replicable as its controlled and standardised. |
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