4 Main Core Studies

4 Main Core Studies

1. Loftus an Palmer Study 1:

   • The aim of the first experiment was to see whether using different verbs to describe a collision between two cars would affect estimates of the speed at which they were travelling when the crash took place.
   • IV: The Phrasing of the question: contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed.
   • DV: Mean estimated speed of the car.
   • Participants
     • All college students at the University of Washington, Seattle
     • 45 student and 5 conditions with 9 participants per conditon
   • This was a lab experiment. This makes it not very ecologically valid as there are a lot of controls in place to control extraneous variables as it is a lab experiment which means it doesn't resemble the real world very well. However this does mean the experiment is reliable as it follows a standardised procedure and is highly controlled so you can repeat the experiment and get the same results.
   • Used an Independent measures design. This reduces the chances of demand characteristics occuring and also reduces order effects. However it allows for participant variables which means that one group could be naturally better at one thing than the other resulting in less accurate results.
   • Conclusion: Participants' estimates of the speed at which the cars were travelling when the accident took place varied according to the verb used to describe the crash. There are 2 reasons for this: Response Bias or Memory Distortion