Loftus and Pickrell's study of false memories

• Aim-

  To see if false memories could be created in participants through suggestions.
• Method-

  • 24 Participants (3 male and 21 female) ranging in age.
  • Each participant's relative was contacted
  • Participants given 4 short stories about childhood events, 3 were true and one was false.
  • False story was about getting lost in a shopping mall and helped by an old lady.
  • Participants asked to read stories and write what they recalled about each one.
  • A week later, they were debriefed.
• Results-

  6 of the participants (25%) recalled the false story fully or partially
• Conclusion-

  Suggests that the act of imagining an event has the potential of creating a false memory.
• Evaluation point 1

  • Weakness- study only used 3 males.
  • Study could be criticised for not representing males
  • Results could not be generalisable to males.
• Evaluation point 2

  • Strength- False memories show us how people could remember things that haven't happened.
  • Influenced court systems to not primarily use eyewitness testimonies anymore.
  • Shows how useful the research is.