Misleading Information On EWT AO1

Cards (13)

  • If the wording of a question leads someone to an answer this decreases the accuracy of EWT
  • LOFTUS & PALMER showed students film clips of car accidents and asked them questions
  • In the critical question, they were asked to estimate how fast the cars were going when they contacted/smashed
  • The critical verb changed

    For 'contacted', the mean estimate was 31.8mph, whereas for 'smashed' it was 40.5
  • The wording of the question likely distorted the schemas of the participants
  • The substitution explanation suggests memory is changed
  • When Loftus later asked if they'd seen broken glass (when there was none), participants said 'smashed' more often than 'hit'
  • Post-event discussion also decreases accuracy of EWT
  • GABBERT showed participants separate clips of the same crime from different points of view
  • If they discussed before being interviewed, 71% of participants included details they hadn't seen, but others had
  • A control group with no discussion included no details they hadn't seen
  • Memory contamination

    When discussion distorts individual memories, although it could be memory conformity - just agreeing with others for social approval
  • So there may be no actual memory change