Misleading Information

Misleading Information

1. Loftus and Palmer: Experiment 1 leading questions

   • PROCEDURE
     • 45 student participants showed a short video clip.
       • They were split into 5 groups, 9 participants in each.
     • All participants were asked 'about how fast were the cars going when they ________ each other'
       • Each group was given a different verb to fill in the gap
         • HIt
         • Bumped
         • Collided
         • Contacted
         • Smashed
     • LAB experiment
     • Independent groups design
   • AIM
     • They wanted to see whether misleading information distorted the accuracy of eyewitness's immediate recall.
   • FINDINGS
     • Smashed =40.8 mph
     • Collided= 39.3mph
     • Bumped= 38.1mph
     • Hit= 34.0mph
     • Contacted= 31.8mph
   • CONCLUSION
     • They concluded that the accuracy of eyewitness recall can be altered by misleading information

2. Loftus and Palmer: Experiment 2. Post event information

   • PROCEDURE
     • 150 student were shown a short film that showed a multi-vehicle car accident and then they were asked question about it.
     • The participant were split into 3 groups (50 in each)
       • One group was asked 'how fast were the cars going when they HIT each other?'
       • The second group was asked 'how fast were the cars going when the SMASHED into each other?'
       • The third group was not asked about the speed of the vehicles. (control group)
     • One week later, all participants were asked ' Did you see any broken glass?'
       • There was no broken glass in the film.
   • AIM
     • to see whether memory can indeed be altered by misleading post event information
   • RESULTS
     • SMASHED= 16 said yes to broken glass and 34 said no
     • HIT= 7 said yes to broken glass and 43 said no
     • CONTROL= 6 said yes to broken glass and 44 said no
     • CONCLUSION
       • This suggested that misleading post-event information does change the way information is stored

3. EVALUATION

   • Yullie and Cutshall (1986)
     • Despite questions, witnesses provided accurate recall that matched initial reports
       • suggesting that post-event information may not affect memory in real life
   • Loftus et al. (1978)
     • 75%of participants who had consistent questions picked the correct slide.
       • This shows that misleading questions affec their recall, as lofts and palmer concluded in their original study
   • Wells and Olsen (2003). Real world application ANN Individual differences
     • Real world application.Recent DNA exoneration cases have confirmed the warnings of eyewitness identification researcher bby showing that mistaken eyewitness identification was the largest single factor contributing to the conviction of these innocent people
     • Individual differences. Wells and Olsen's review of eyewitness testimony research concludes that although males and females take and interest in different aspects of the scene, the overall abilities of males and females in eyewitness memory is largely indistinguishable
   • Foster et al. Experiment on emotional arousal
     • People may not take experiments like lofts and palmer seriously and/or are not emotionally aroused in the way that they would be in a real accident. Foster found that if participants thought they were watching a real life robbery, and also thought their responses would influence the trial, their identification of the robber was more accurate.
       • Loftus and Palmer lacks Mundane realism