LOFTUS AND PALMER 1974

LOFTUS AND PALMER (1974)

86a65a81-8c9e-4068-991d-49e98f5a1220 (image/jpeg)

EXPERIMENT 1

ccf23d48-3677-473c-8c36-a21bd1bdb573 (image/jpeg)

Caption: : WHATS THE VERB?

AIM

TO INVESTIGATE HOW INFORMATION SUPPLIED AFTER AN EVENT CAN INFLUENCE THE MEMORY OF A WITNESS

HYPOTHESIS

PARTICIPANTS WHO ARE ASKED THE SMASHED QUESTION WILL GIVE HIGHER MPH SPEED ESTIMATES THAN PARTICIPANTS WHO ARE ASKED THE HIT, BUMPED, CONTACTED OR COLLIDED QUESTIONS

METHOD AND DESIGN

RESEARCH METHOD: LABORATORY EXPERIMENTINDEPENDANT VARIABLE: VERB USED IN CRITICAL QUESTIONVERBS USED: SMASHED, BUMPED, CONTACTED, COLLIDED, HITDEPENDANT VARIABLE: SPEED ESTIMATE IN MPHEXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: INDEPENDANT MEASURES

PARTICIPANTS

45 STUDENTS FROM AMERICAN UNIVERSITYSPLIT INTO 5 GROUPS OF 9 STUDENTS

PROCEDURE

PARTICIPANTS WERE ASKED TO WATCH SEVEN VIDEO CLIPS ABOUT DIFFERENT CAR ACCIDENTS SOURCES FROM THE SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT WHICH ALL LASTED BETWEEN FIVE AND THIRTY SECONDSTHE VIDEOS SHOWED STAGED CRASHES BECAUSE OF THE ETHICAL ISSUES OF SHOWING REAL CRASHESTHE SPEED THAT THE CARS IN THE CLIPS WERE TRAVELLING WAS KNOWN BY THE EXPERIMENTERSTHE CLIPS WERE SHOWN TO THE GROUPS IN A COUNTERBALANCED ORDER TO REDUCE ORDER EFFECTS

PARTICIPANTS WERE EACH GIVEN A QUESTIONNAIRE IN WHICH THEY FIRST HAD TO GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF THE CLIP THEY HAD SEEN, AND THEN WERE ASKED SET QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EVENT ITSELFWITHIN THIS QUESTIONNAIRE WAS THE CRITICAL QUESTION: ABOUT HOW FAST WERE THE CARS GOING WHEN THEY ..... EACH OTHERTHE VERB USED WERE HIT, BUMPED, COLLIDED, CONTACTED AND SMASHEDTHE EXPERIMENT LASTED ROUGHLY 90 MINUTES

RESULTS

b9614801-9de4-483e-a40d-e45e9489ca01 (image/png)

FROM THE RESULTS TABLE WE CAN SEE THAT THE WORD 'SMASHED' GAVE THE HIGHEST MEAN SPEED ESTIMATE OF 40.8MPH AND THE VERB 'CONTACTED' GAVE THE LOWEST MEAN SPEED ESTIMATE OF 31.8MPH

EXPLANATION OF THE RESULTS

FINDING OUT THAT CERTAIN VERBS CAUSED DIFFERENT SPEED ESTIMATES REALLY INTERESTED THE RESEARCHERS, THEY THOUGHT THAT THE RESULTS COULD BE DUE TO TWO REASONS AND THEY WANTED TO KNOW WHICH REASON WAS THE RIGHT ONEEITHER THE PARTICIPANTS WERE UNSURE AND THE VERB GIVEN BIASED THEIR RESPONSE IN A CERTAIN DIRECTION (KNOWN AS RESPONSE BIAS) OR, THE VERB CAUSED A CHANGE IN THE PARTICIPANTS' ACTUAL MEMORY, SO THEY SEE THE ACCIDENT AS MORE OR LESS SEVERE THAN IT ACTUALLY WAS IN THEIR HEAD WHEN REMEMBERING ITIN ORDER TO FIND OUT WHICH REASON WAS THE RIGHT ONE, THEY CONDUCTED ANOTHER EXPERIMENT...

EXPERIMENT 2

b3d3edfe-1a45-4194-bf2e-5301470c98e0 (image/jpeg)

Caption: : SMASHED GLASS?

AIM

THE SECOND STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INSIGHT INTO THE SPEED ESTIMATE DIFFERENCES FOUND IN THE FIRST STUDYWERE THEY DUE TO A RESPONSE BIAS, OR HAD THE MEMORY ACTUALLY BEEN ALTERED?

HYPOTHESIS

PARTICIPANTS THAT ARE ASKED THE SMASHED QUESTION WILL SAY YES MORE OFTEN TO SEEING BROKEN GLASS THAN THOSE THAT ARE ASKED THE HIT QUESTION

METHOD AND DESIGN

RESEARCH METHOD: LABORATORY EXPERIMENTINDEPENDANT VARIABLE: VERB USED, SMASHED OR HITDEPENDANT VARIABLE: SPEED ESTIMATES GIVEN IN MPH AND RESPONSE GIVEN AS TO WHETHER THEY RECALLED SEEING BROKEN GLASSEXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: INDEPENDANT MEASURES

PARTICIPANTS

150 STUDENTS FROM AMERICAN UNIVERSITYTHREE GROUPS OF FIFTY STUDENTS, ONE GROUP SMASHED CONDITION, ONE GROUP HIT CONDITION, ONE GROUP CONTROL CONDITION

PROCEDURE

THE PARTICIPANTS WERE ALLOCATED TO THREE CONDITIONS; SMASHED HIT OR CONTROLTHEY WERE THEN SHOWN A VIDEO CLIP OF A MULTIPLE CAR ACCIDENT, THE CLIP LASTED FOR ONE MINUTE AND THE ACCIDENT PART LASTED FOUR SECONDSAFTER THE VIDEO CLIP THEY WERE ASKED TO COMPLETE A QUESTIONNAIRE, WHERE THEY WERE FIRST ASKED TO DESCRIBE THE ACCIDENT THEY HAD SEEN AND THEN ASKED A SERIES OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EVENT INCLUDING THE CRITICAL QUESTION: ABOUT HOW FAST WERE THE CARS GOING WHEN THEY ..... EACH OTHER?ONLY TWO VERBS WERE USED IN THIS STUDY, SMASHED AND HITTHE CONTROL GROUP WERE NOT ASKED THE CRITICAL QUESTION

A WEEK LATER, THE PARTICIPANTS RETURNED AND WERE ASKED TO FILL IN ANOTHER QUESTIONNAIRE BUT THIS TIME THEY WERE NOT SHOWN THE VIDEO CLIPTHE QUESTIONNAIRE ASKED A SERIES OF 10 QUESTIONS AND THE NEW CRITICAL QUESTION WAS HIDDEN IN THIS LIST OF QUESTIONS AND THE CRITICAL QUESTION "DID YOU SEE ANY BROKEN GLASS?" WHICH WAS A CLOSED QUESTION AND PARTICIPANTS ANSWERED BY TICKING YES OR NOTHE VIDEO DID NOT CONTAIN ANY BROKEN GLASS

RESULTS

4c6a5403-d1fe-40bf-b06f-e31931e7a835 (image/jpeg)

THE RESULTS SHOWED THAT THE ESTIMATES OF SPEED IN MPH WERE AGAIN HIGHER WHEN THE WORD SMASHED WAS USED. THE SMASHED CONDITION HAD A MEAN OF 10.46MPH AND THE HIT CONDITION HAD A MEAN OF 8MPH. IN THE SMASHED CONDITION PARTICIPANTS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE LIKELY TO RESPOND YES TO THE CRITICAL QUESTION IN THE SECOND QUESTIONNAIREPARTICIPANTS WHO BELIEVED THE ACCIDENT TOOK PLACE AT A HIGHER SPEED (SMASHED), SAW TEH ACCIDENT AS MORE SEVERE AND WERE MORE LIKELY TO PRESUME THAT TEHRE HAD BEEN BROKEN GLASS, AND THIS MAKES SENSE AND IS WHAT WE EXPECT DURING FAST ACCIDENTS

CONCLUSION

THE WAY A QUESTION IS ASKED WILL ENORMOUSLY INFLUENCE THE ANSWER THAT IS GIVENINFORMATION OBTAINED DURING THE EVENT AND INFORMATION OBTAINED AFTER THE EVENT WILL INTEGRATE WITH EACH OTHER TO FORM 'ONE MEMORY'