Core Studies

Experiment one;

 aim; how information is displayed has an effect on memory recall

lab experiment with 45 American Students

shown 7 clips ranging from 5 - 30 seconds from safety films for driving education

after each clip participants were asked to write an account of what happened and asked a few questions, including the critical question.

the question changed for each condition (five conditions - 9 in each)

'About how fast were the cars going when they smashed each other?'

'About how fast were the cars going when they collided each other?'

'About how fast were the cars going when they bumped each other?'

'About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?'

'About how fast were the cars going when they contacted each other?'

the dependent variable is the speed estimates given by the participants 

Verb            Mean speed estimate (mph)

smashed      40.8        

collided        39.3

bumped       38.1

hit               34.0

contacted     31.8

Findings; 

1, They argue the results could be due to a distorion in the memory of the participant from the verbal label.

2, They argue the results could be due to a response-bias that the participant is not sure of the speed and adjusts their estimaye to fit the expectations of the question (demand characteristic)

Experiment 2;

aim; to find out if participants memory was distorted by the verbal label

lab experiment with 150 participants

shown a one minute clip of 4 second scenes of multiple car accident and then  questioned.

there were 3 conditions; 

How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?

How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?

50 of the participants were not interrogated about the speed of the vehicles 

one week later the participants returned (they did not re-watch the film) 

the ciritical question was 'Did you seen any broken glass?' placed in random position in the question paper.

response; smahsed hit control 

yes          16           7    6

no            34           43  44