reconstructive memory
evaluation: Strong evidence in suggesting in creating false memories. However, only 25% had false memories and it is unsure why they were more susceptible
Loftus & Pickrell 1995
we make sense of the past by interpretation & deduction
= memory is an imaginative reconstructive of experience
resolutions
Ronald Cotton
based on the idea that memory is not saved as complete, coherent wholes
schema influences what we encode and what we retrieve from memory
retrieval of memory is influenced by our perception, beliefs, past experience, cultural factors, and the context in which we are recalling the information
aim: to determine if false memories of autobiographical events could be created through the power of suggestion
results: about 25% of the patients "recalled" the false memory. However, they responded they were less confident about the memory in the questionnaire.
procedure: a participant's : family member was asked if they could recall 3 childhood memories from the participant, and whether the participant has been lost in a mall. Then the participants were interviewed
application: gathering data from eyewitness, understanding false memory in therapy
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ecological validity was high as people were talking about their own memories
ethical concerns about deception, concerns about contamination by family members consulting with the questionarre, and demand characteristics as social desirability effect
procedure: 150 students were divided into groups and watched the same clip of car crashes. Then they wreaked to describe the accident on their own. After that, they were divided into halves and were asked "About how fast were the cars going when they smashed/hit each other?"
After a week, they were asked to complete 10 questions with only 1 critical question
"Did you see any broken glass?"
Loftus & Palmer 1994 #1
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witnesses are likely to pick people with similar clothing worn by the culprit during the event --> the suspects should all be wearing the same clothing
all members in the lineup should match the subject description
the witness should be told that the suspect may or may not be in the lineup
when gathering evidence from the witness, the researchers ask using a narrative interview style called cognitive interview
A narrative interview is an interview where the interviewer asks questions such as "Could you tell me what you remember about the night of the murder?"
This way, the interviewer does not alter schema or distort memory by asking leading questions
a cognitive interview is a type of interview that begins with context reinstatement
change the perspective: involves person thinking out of their own schema "What do you think (another person) saw?"
change the order: breaks down the role of schema filling in information. Researchers ask interviewees to recall events forward and backward than simply retelling the story
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procedure: the participants watched the same clip of traffic accidents. They were asked differently worded versions of the same question
"About how fast were the cars when they (smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted) each other?
Then were asked to estimated the speed of the car
setting and confounding variables were controlled so only the independent variable could be measured
students are representatives of the general populations
could be a problem with low ecological validity
would not evoke the same emotions as witnessing a real accident
Loftus and Palmer 1994 #2
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evaluation: The results can be interpreted in terms of Barlett's theory of memory; people tend to change details of an event as they try to remember it
This is probably also what happend in the 1st experiment
However, the students could have seen previous accidents with broken glass, which would mean schema affected their response
Lacks ecological validity
The study has been replicated and shows a high degree of reliability
