Pps shown a short video of a
multi-vehicle car accident and then
they were asked questions about it.
Pps split into 3 groups with 50 in each.
All groups were asked
one different question:
Group 1 was asked "How fast
were the cars going when they
hit each other?"
Group 2 was asked "How fast were
the wars going when the smashing
into each other?"
Group 3 was not asked about the
speed of the vehicles.
One week later all pps returned
and were asked "Did you see
any broken glass?"
There was no broken glass in the film.
Controls:
All pps of similar age
All pps asked the same
questions apart from changes
in critical question
All pps watched the same film clip
All pps tested in the same location
(lab experiment)
The critical question was hidden in
among other questions about the
collision to reduce demand
characteristics by preventing the pps
from guessing which question the
researchers were really interested in.
Results:
16 pps from the "Smashed" group said they saw
glass. 7 from the "Hit" group said they saw glass.
6 from the "Control" group said they saw glass.
"Hit" and "Control" memory capability
to very similar.
The results show that the verb used int he
original question influenced whether the
pps thought they had seen broken glass.
Researchers argue that two kinds
of information go into a person
memory of an event.
The first is information from perceiving an
event (witnessing it).
The second is other information
supplied to us after the event
(e.g. leading questions).
Over time the information from these two
sources may be integrated to produce the
one 'restructured' memory.
Evaluation:
In controlled conditions. Allows them
to determine cause and effect
relationship due to no extraneous
variables having an impact.
Artificial situation therefore
generalising the results to real life
would be an issue, meaning low
ecological validity.
pps likely look for clues on how to behave and
will try to give the researchers the answers they
were looking for, i.e. demand characteristics.