Loftus and Pickrell 1995 The Formation of False Memories (Lost in the Mall) Video 1 “This presentation contains copyrighted material under the educational fair use exemption to the U.S. copyright law”

I. Background A. Background studies 1. Loftus 1974 A sample of 45 students watched slides, film clips or a videotape of car accidents. They were asked for the speed of the car at the time of collision–after they were told that the car either smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted. Estimate’s were higher for smashed at 40.8mph, compared with contacted at 31.8mph. Also they were asked whether they saw any glass. Higher percentages were found with regards to ‘smashed’ than ‘hit’.

B. Previous paradigm (from the study) 2. Loftus Miller & Burns 1978 Participants were shown 2 images with a Datsun at either a ‘stop’ and ‘yield’ sign. After this they were asked what speed the car was going when it crossed the sign. People estimated the car at the stop sign to have greater speed. This is a focus on how schema’s affect eyewitness testimony B. Previous paradigm (from the study)

II. Methodology A. Sample: 1. 3 males and 21 females 2. Age range: 18 to 53 years 3. Recruited by University of Washington students 4. A pair of individuals – a subject and the subject’s relative 5. Primarily parent-child pair or sibling pair 6. The relative member of the pair had to be the one who had knowledge about childhood experiences of the subject

II. Methodology B. Materials: 1. A five-page booklet containing a cover letter with instructions for completing the booklet and schedule of interviews 2. The booklet contained four short stories about childhood events of the subject provided by the relative 3. Actually three of the stories were true 4. One was false about child getting lost 5. The order of events was always same in all booklets 6. The false event was presented in the third position 7. Each event was presented in a single paragraph 8. Remaining page was left blank for the subject to reproduce his memory

II. Methodology C. Procedures 1. Obtaining false and accurate memories a. Interviewed the relative to obtain three events that happened to the subjects between 4 to 6 years of age b. The stories were not to be family folklore/traumatic events c. Also information about a plausible shopping trip to a mall or large departmental store was obtained Where the family would have shopped when the subject was five years old. Which members of the family usually went along on a shopping trip What kinds of stores might have attracted the subject’s interests Verification that the subject had not been lost in a mall around age of five

II. Methodology 2. Every false memory created had the following features: a. Lost for an extended period b. Crying c. Lost in a mall or large department store at about age of 5 d. Found and aided by an elderly woman e. Reunited with the family.

II. Methodology 3. Initial data collection a. They were told to read the events in booklets and write what they remembered about each event. b. If event not remembered, they write “I do not remember this”. c. After completing the booklet, mailed back to the researchers

II. Methodology 4. The interviews 5. Post experiment procedures a. Ss were called and scheduled for two interviews b. If convenient, interview would take place at university, otherwise over telephone c. First interview - one or two weeks after receipt of booklet d. Second interview – one or two weeks after first interview e. Interviewers were 2 females 5. Post experiment procedures a. Ss were debriefed in the end and were asked to choose which of the four events was false b. Apologies for the deception and explanation why it was necessary

Summary Cues 1. Cue 1: From the actual study A. What has modern research on interference focused on? B. Describe the previous paradigm for studying this phenomenon C. What important issue has not been studied? Cue 2: Pick 2 facts about the sample to memorize. Cue 3: What type of sample is this? Cue 4: Briefly summarize the example story. Provide at least 1 direct quote. Cue 5: Why put the false memory always in the 3rd position? Cue 6: Why was it important that the memories not be traumatic? Cue 7: How and why did the authors deceive the Ps? Cue 8: Why allow interviews at home? What pros and cons in regards to ecological validity may occur? Cue 9: Write 5 true false questions from video 1 (3 false with corrections 2 true) Cue 10: Give 2 critiques of the sample. Cue 11: Why might it have been difficult to have a larger sample?

Loftus and Pickrell 1995 The Formation of False Memories (Lost in the Mall) Video 2 “This presentation contains copyrighted material under the educational fair use exemption to the U.S. copyright law”

III. Data Collection A. The first interview 1. Ss were reminded of each event and asked to recall as much as they could. 2. Later, Ss rated their memory for the event on a scale of 1 to 10. 1=not clear at all , and 10=extremely clear 3. Ss then rated the confidence on 5-point scale that if given more time to think, they would be able to recall more details 1=not confident, and 5=extremely confident

B. The 2nd Interview III. Data Collection 1. After 1st interview, Ss were not to discuss events with relatives 2. Ss were told to try to remember more details for the next interview 3. 2nd interview was as same as 1st interview, Ss recalled events, and rated on clarity and confidence scales.

IV. Results A. Memory for true events: B. Memory for false events: 1. In total, there were 72 true events 2. 49 out of 72 (68%) were remembered in booklet 3. This percentage held constant in 1st and 2nd interview B. Memory for false events: 1. Total 24 false events 2. 7 out of 24 (29%) were remembered, either fully or partially in booklet 3. Partial memories mean remembering parts of event + speculations about how and when it happened 4. During 1st interview, one subject claimed she did not remember this, dropping the number from 7 to 6 (25%) of the events were remembered fully or partially. 5. In 2nd interview, the percentage held constant

Figure 1: Twenty· four subjects were asked to remember true and false events over three stages-booklet and two mterv1ews. The percentage remembering IS shown.

IV. Results C. Number of words used to describe memories: 1. The mean word length of descriptions of true memories was 138.0 2. The mean word length of descriptions of false memories was 49.9 3. these findings are based on the descriptions of 7 (29%) of the subjects who produced partial or full memories of false events in their booklets

IV. Results D. Clarity ratings for events: 1. The clarity ratings for the false events were tended to be lower 2. The mean clarity rating for the true events was 6.3 in both 1st and 2nd interview 3. The mean clarity rating for the false events was 2.8 in 1st interview and 3.6 in 2nd interview

IV. Results

E. Confidence ratings: 1. Confidence ratings were lower for false events. 2. For true events, rating in 1st interview was 2.7 and in 2nd interview it was 2.2 3. For false events, it was 1.8 in 1st interview and 1.4 in 2nd interview. F. When asked to choose false event after debriefing 19 subjects correctly identified the false event as getting-lost memory.

V. Conclusion A. These findings reveal that people can be led to believe that entire events happen to them after suggestions to that effect. 1. These findings provide an “existence proof” for the phenomenon of false memory information. 2. Memory can be altered via suggestion. 3. People can be led to remember their past in different ways and they can even be led to remember entire events that actually did not happen to them

Summary Cues Cue 12: Is it possible that the Ss DID talk to their relatives? Is there a way to control for this? Cue 13: What were the results for the one person who used very few words to describe either false or true memories? Cu3 14 From the study A. Describe the study using Becca for the MacNiel/Leher News Hour program. B. Describe the results of the Hyman study on remembering an overnight hospitalization C. Describe the results of the Hyman study on spilling punch at a wedding. Cue 15: What do the authors hypothesize may cause the formation of false memories? Cue 16: Give an example of both quantitative and qualitative data collected in this study. Cue 17: Give 2 strengths and 2 weakness of using interviews to conduct studies Cue 18: How is this study useful?