Reconstructive Memory
Memories are influenced by beliefs, past experiences, culture, and context.
Memory isn’t perfect—it's a reconstruction, often shaped by schemas (mental frameworks).
Loftus and Pickrell (1995) 
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Aim:
To see if false memories can be created through suggestion (e.g., planting a memory of being lost in a mall)
Procedure:
Participants were asked to recall childhood events, with three true memories and one fake (getting lost in a mall).
They had to recall and write about these memories over time
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Results:
25% of participants “remembered” the fake memory.
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Conclusion/Evaluation:
Suggestion can create false memories, but not everyone is susceptible.
The study has high ecological validity because it focuses on real-life childhood memories, but it raises ethical concerns due to the use of deception.
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Loftus and Palmer (1974) 
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Aim:
to be able to explore how the phrasing of questions, particularly leading questions, can affect eyewitness memory, specifically in estimating the speed of vehicles involved in a car accident.
Procedure:
Participants watched videos of car accidents and were asked about the speed of the cars. Different groups received varying wording in the questions: one group heard the verb "smashed," while others heard "hit," "bumped," or "contacted."
Results:
Participants who heard the word "smashed" estimated higher speeds than those who heard "hit." Additionally, those who heard "smashed" were more likely to mistakenly recall seeing broken glass at the scene.
Conclusion/Evaluation:
The study highlights how the way questions are phrased can shape our memories, showing the complexities of reconstructive memory. However, it also brings up some important concerns about ecological validity. Since the participants were just watching videos without the emotional weight of a real-life accident, the findings might not fully reflect how people remember events in real situations.
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