January 2012

Why is question A an example of misleading information?

This is an example of misleading information because the word youth suggests the man was young. Age may influence answers given.

Name an appropriate experimental design 

Independent design/matched measures

Why would repeated measures be inappropriate?

A repeated measures design could not be used because participants would take part in both conditions. This would be inappropriate because their answer to one question would affect their answer to the other question. It would make it easy to work out the aim of the experiment and so could lead to demand characteristics.

Why are pilot studies appropriate?

In this experiment it could be used to check how long the participant should be given to look at the picture so that the timing could be changed if it was too long or too short. It could check the participants understand the questions asked and what they are required to do it could also be used to ask a few participants about their experience of taking part.

Strength and limitation of carrying pictures instead of live conversation

One strength of using photographs in the investigation would be control of variables. The same pictures could be shown for the same amount of time. One limitation is lack of validity. The findings cannot be generalised to real life situations where other factors such as changing facial expressions and gestures could be relevant.

Describe studies into misleading information

Elizabeth Loftus found that the vocabulary used in questioning can influence the answer given. Loftus carried out a study in which she asked 45 students to answer questions on a car crash and they were split into 4 groups, all being asked the same question but with different verbs such as collided and smashed. She found that those with more aggressive verbs dramatised the event more. Loftus and Palmer found the memory can be altered…