Loftus and Palmer

Loftus and Palmer

1. experiment 1

   • sample
     • 45 students
     • No age/gender recorded
   • design
     • lab experiment
     • independent measures
   • procedure
     • shown 7 films
       • asked to write an account and questionaire
         • all but one were fillers
         • critical question how fast were the cars going when they ... each other
   • variables
     • iv conditions contacted, bumped, collided, smashed, hit
     • dv estimated speeds
   • results
     • quantitative
       • smashed 40.5 collided 39.3 bumped 38.1 hit 34.0 contacted 31.8
   • conclusions
     • response bias- unclear what the speed is so use the verb to give them a clue
     • memory distortion the verb alters the memory of the crash
   • aim
     • to test if phrasing of questions alters memory

2. experiment 2

   • sample
     • 150 students
     • No age/gender recorded
   • design
     • lab experiment independent measure design
   • procedure
     • shown 1 film
       • describe in own words and answer questionnaire
         • all but one question were fillers
         • critical question about how fast were the cars going when they... into each other
         • 1 week later they were given another questionaire with fillers and the critical question of did you see any glass
   • results
     • quantitative
       • smashed glass 16 No glass 34
       • hit glass 7 No glass 43
       • control glass 6 No glass 44
   • variables
     • iv conditions hit smashed not asked about speed
     • dv if they saw glass
   • conclusions
     • suggests not response bias but memory distortion as questions become part of the memory
   • aim
     • to see if results in experiment 1 were due to memory distortion