Loftus + Palmer
- Created by: hannah.5575
- Created on: 24-01-19 09:21
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- Loftus + Palmer
- General Aim
- To investigate the effect of questioning on witness memory of a car accident
- Research Method
- both experiements were laboratory and independent measures design
- Experiment 1: 45 ppts Experiment 2: 150
- Experiment 1:
- Aim:whether using different verbs to describe a collision between two cars would affect estimates of the speed of the crash
- IV: wording of a critical question DV: the estimated speed (mph) given by participant
- Procedure:
- 1. All participants were shown the same 7 film clips of different traffic accidents which were originally made as part of a driver safety film.
- 2. After each clip participants were given a questionnaire which asked them firstly to describe the accident and then answer a series of questions about the accident.
- 3. There was one critical question in the questionnaire: “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
- 4. One group was given this question while the other 4 groups were given the verbs “smashed’, ‘collided’, ‘contacted’ or ‘bumped’, instead of ‘hit’.
- 3. There was one critical question in the questionnaire: “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
- 2. After each clip participants were given a questionnaire which asked them firstly to describe the accident and then answer a series of questions about the accident.
- 1. All participants were shown the same 7 film clips of different traffic accidents which were originally made as part of a driver safety film.
- Results
- Smashed: 40.8 Collided: 39.3 Bumped: 38.1 Hit: 34 Contacted: 31.8
- Experiment 2:
- Aim: to investigate whether the different speed estimates found in expt.1 were a result of distortion in memory.
- Procedure
- All participants were shown a one-minute film which contained a 4-second multiple car crash.
- They were then given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accident and answer a set of questions about the incident.
- There was a critical question about speed:
- One group was asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”
- Another group was asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”– The third group did not have a question about vehicular speed.
- One week later, all participants, without seeing the film again, completed another questionnaire about the accident
- which contained the critical question: “Did you see any broken glass – Yes/No?”
- THERE WAS NO BROKEN GLASS IN THE ORIGINAL FILM
- which contained the critical question: “Did you see any broken glass – Yes/No?”
- There was a critical question about speed:
- They were then given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accident and answer a set of questions about the incident.
- All participants were shown a one-minute film which contained a 4-second multiple car crash.
- Results
- smashed (yes): 16, (no) 34
- Hit (yes): 7, (no): 43
- Control (yes) 6, (no) 44
- Conclusion
- The verb used in a question influences a participant’s response i.e. the way a question is phrased influences the answer given.
- People are not very good at judging vehicular speed.
- Misleading postevent information can distort an individual’s memory.
- General Aim
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