Loftus and Palmer (1974) (A2) Reconstruction of automobile destruction and example of the interaction between language and memory

Background How good is your memory? You will have 2 minutes to look at a list of words. The words will be taken away and you will then have 2 minutes to recall them.

Clock Soft Mouse Violin Shoe Teeth Hair Pen Mug Book Rain Water Yellow Shade Plane Spy

How good is your memory? You now have 2 minutes to write down the words. In this memory test you have been using your short-term memory. Short-term memory lasts only a few seconds, and in real life isn’t a very accurate or reliable source of information. Long-term memory lasts for weeks, months and years. For example, it is what you use when you remember significant events in your life. What if our long-term memory is not as accurate as we think? What if our important memories did not happen the way we thought they did?

What factors do you think could reduce the accuracy of a memory? An inaccurate memory could have disastrous consequences in, for example, a courtroom setting when a witness is remembering an event. The aim of the Loftus and Palmer study was to investigate the effect of language (in particular leading questions) on memory. Key term: Leading questions – when a question is asked in a way that pushes a person into giving a particular answer. For example: How much do you love psychology?

Experiment 1: Method Sample 45 American students from Washington University were recruited to take part in this study. They were split into five groups of nine. Procedure Participants watched several clips of road safety videos. In some of the videos they witnessed a car crash. Afterwards participants filled out a questionnaire recounting what they had seen in the clips.

‘About how fast were the cars going when they ___________ each other?’ Critical question Although participants filled out a questionnaire of several questions, Loftus and Palmer were concerned only with one of the questions, which they called the critical question: ‘About how fast were the cars going when they ___________ each other?’ There were five groups of participants. Each group’s critical question had a different word in the ‘blank’ (the rest of the questionnaire was identical).

The five verbs used for the groups About how fast were the cars going when they bumped each other? About how fast were the cars going when they contacted each other? About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other? About how fast were the cars going when they collided into each other? About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? The speed estimation that participants gave was what was measured in this study.

Results Contacted: Hit: Bumped: Collided: Smashed: 31.8mph 34.0mph Mean speed estimations given by each group were: Contacted: Hit: Bumped: Collided: Smashed: 31.8mph 34.0mph 38.1mph 39.8mph 40.8mph What conclusion can you draw from this table?

Discussion There was a clear indication that the increasing severity of the verb caused participants to give higher estimations of speed. This suggests that leading questions can affect the accuracy of the memory. Loftus and Palmer gave two possible explanations for the results: Memory alteration – the effect of the leading questions genuinely caused the participant to believe they saw the car travelling faster than it really did. Response bias – the wording of the question caused the participant to alter their answer from what they actually believed (e.g. ‘“Bumped” doesn’t sound very fast so I should estimate a lower speed’).

Experiment 2 The aim of the follow-up experiment was to investigate if participants would claim to have seen broken glass in a car accident, when in fact there was none. Sample 150 students Split into three groups of 50

Experiment 2: Procedure The procedure for the first part of the study was similar to Experiment 1. Participants watched a single clip of a car crash and were once again given a questionnaire with the critical question. One group had hit as the verb in the question. Another group had smashed as the verb in the question. The final group was not asked the critical question. A week later all participants came back and were asked a second critical question: ‘Did you see the broken glass?’ However, there was no broken glass in the clip.

Results Participants’ speed estimates: Findings were consistent with the last experiment. How many participants claimed to have seen the broken glass? What can you conclude from these results?

Discussion Once again, the severity of the verb influenced participants’ speed estimates. Additionally, participants were more likely to claim that they had seen broken glass in the clip, even when there was none. This suggests that leading questions influence a person’s memory to the point where they will claim to have seen things that were not there.

Conclusion Loftus and Palmer conclude that our memory is made up of two elements: Our original perception of the event. External information supplied afterwards (e.g. ‘Did you see the broken glass?’). Over time these elements merge together and eventually we cannot tell what we originally saw and what information we obtained afterwards.

Evaluation Loftus and Palmer conclude that we cannot always trust our memories – but can we trust these results? Both of Loftus and Palmer’s studies were lab experiments. Using your knowledge of the methodology of lab experiments, describe the strengths and weaknesses of this design.

Links to debates Psychology as a science – like all lab experiences, this study was well controlled and as such could be easily replicated in the future (a feature of scientific studies). Usefulness – this study has clear applications in the real world. Police can be trained in how to interview suspects and witnesses in a way that avoids leading questions, to ensure accurate information is recalled.

Links to areas/perspectives This study is a clear example of research within the cognitive area. Memory is a cognitive mental process. As this study investigated how language can affect memory, we can confidently state that this study is a cognitive area of study.

Links to the key themes The key theme for this study is ‘memory’. The study by Loftus and Palmer gives us objective, quantitative data on how memory can be influenced by other factors (in this case, language). After looking at this study, how much do you think memory can be trusted in everyday life?