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Loftus and Palmer Study

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Argue - There are variables that may affect memory and recall.

Aim - How information provided after an event in the form of leading questions may effect peoples memories.

Experiment 1

Participants - 45 students from the University of Washington.
Procedure - Participants shown seven videos of car crashes ranging from 4 to 30 seconds long. The videos were excerpts from drivers ed courses so the researchers were aware of the speeds of the cars. The videos were shown to the participants in random order. After each video participants were given a questionnaire which asked them to give an account of the film they had seen. Then they were asked to answer some questions based on what they had seen. Most of the questions were 'filler …show more content…

Experiment 2

Participants - 150 students from the University of Washington.
Procedure - The participants were shown a short film of a multiple car crash, which lasted for one minute, though the action lasted for four seconds. The participants were split into three groups. The first group were asked: How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? The second group were asked: How fast were the cars going when they hit each other? The third group was the control group and were not asked about the speed of the cars. A week later the participants were recalled and asked some more questions about the film. Nine of these were filler questions. The critical question was: Did you see any broken glass? This question appeared randomly in the other question. (There was no broken glass in the film)
Results - The results supported that of the first experiment. The participants in the smashed condition overestimated the speed of the cars. The participants who reported seeing broken glass: Condition|% who answered yes. Smashed|32%, Hit|14%, Control|12%.
Discussion - The results suggest that the verb used affect memory - altering their perception a week later. The word smashed incorporates broken glass in to their memories as the word smashed implies broken glass.
Loftus and Palmer support the reconstructive memory hypothesis. They believe that information gathered at the time of an icident is

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