AS Level Psychology The core studies Cognitive Approach

Eye Witness Testimony

Traffic accident clips

Traffic Accident Questions Clip 1: Who was responsible for the accident? Clip 2: What was the weather like? Clip 3: About how fast in miles per hour was the car going when it smashed into the bus? Clip 4: What was the colour of the car out of control? Clip 5: Which way did the car skid first? Clip 6: Did the car have an amber or a green light at the junction? Clip 7: Which part of the red car was damaged?

Eye Witness Testimony The study of human memory is a research area in cognitive psychology Eye witness testimony involves memory!

Eye witness testimony? Elizabeth Loftus & John Palmer tested the reliability of eye witness testimony Can the memory of an event be changed by the way witnesses are questioned? The effect of leading questions

Loftus & Palmer Class discussion: What is a leading question ? Do we agree that Memory is not like a camera - we always reconstruct our memories

Loftus & Palmer The title of their paper was: The reconstruction of an automobile destruction Their research involved two experiments

Loftus & Palmer Experiment 1 The participants - 45 students The procedure - Students watched film clips of car accidents After watching the films the students were asked to do two things

Loftus & Palmer Experiment 1 1.Write an account of what they had seen 2.Answer questions about what they had seen One question was the critical question

Loftus & Palmer Experiment 1 The Critical Question About how fast were the cars going when they (*******) each other? There were five conditions (verbs) in the experiment (Five groups of students)

Loftus & Palmer Experiment 1 The five conditions (verbs) Were: 1.Contacted 2.Hit 3.Bumped 4.Collided 5.Smashed

Loftus & Palmer Experiment 1

What conclusion can you draw from the findings? What was the IV? What was the DV?

Eye Witness Testimony The second experiment by Loftus & Palmer

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 The participants students The procedure - Students watched a one minute film which showed a 4 second multiple car accident

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 After the film the participants were divided into three experimental groups

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 Group 1 was asked: “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 Group 2 was asked: “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 Group 3 was asked no question about the speed of the cars

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 One week later The participants returned and were asked more questions including the critical question “Did you see any broken glass?”

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 The findings Which group saw more broken glass?

Loftus & Palmer - Experiment 2 What was the DV in the second experiment? What conclusion can you draw from the findings?

Complete a card sort to identify which results and conclusions link to experiment 1 and which results and conclusions link to experiment 2. You will be provided with cards with information on both experiments and some ‘red herrings’ too! In pairs you need to organise the cards logically in sequence and into the three groups; 1. Results & conclusions from experiment 1 2. Results & conclusions from experiment 2 3. Red herrings!

Verb UsedSpeed estimation 2 conclusions Verb ConditionNumber of participants that saw broken glass % that saw broken glass Plus 6 red herrings! Results from exp 1:Results from exp 2:

Verb UsedSpeed estimation 2 conclusions Smashed40.8Response Bias Collided39.3 Memory alteration caused by schema provoked by the word used Bumped38.1 Hit34 Contacted31.8 Verb ConditionNumber of participants that saw broken glass % that saw broken glass Smashed1632% Hit714% Control612% Plus 6 red herrings! Results from exp 1:Results from exp 2:

Confirm your card sort is correct by your teacher Use this information to complete the Core study worksheet- complete the charts using this information Answer the questions about the conclusions that can be drawn from the study

Loftus & Palmer Loftus & Palmer Was this research in any way unethical? Did this research have ecological validity? Was this a repeated measures design or an independent measures design?

Loftus & Palmer Loftus & Palmer Read the study In your general text, read up on what psychologists say about human memory According to Loftus & Palmer (in the 2 nd experiment) how did the leading question ‘change’ the memory ?

Eye Witness testimony Eye Witness testimony Do you think that unsupported eye witness testimony should be sufficient evidence upon which to convict someone?