methodology and procedures

• Loftus' research method

  Two controlled laboratory experiments
• Loftus' sample

  45 students in Exp 1 and 150 students in Exp 2
• Experiment 1 procedures

  1. Dividing pps into 5 groups of 9 to watch 7 short films- taken from Evergreen safety Council and Seattle police Department

  2. Giving pps a questionnaire to give an account of the accident

  3. Asking specific questions about the accident, including a "critical question" about the speed of the cars
• Experiment 2 procedures

  1. Showing 3 groups a film of a multiple crash

  2. Asking 50 pps "How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?"

  3. Asking 50 pps "How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?"

  4. Not asking the control group about speed in the initial questionnaire

  5. Asking all the pps a week later to fill in a further 10 questions- including ‘Did you see broken glass’
• In both Experiments, the critical/leading question was randomised in position
• lotus and palmer used a correlational design as they were looking at the relationship between two variables (age and memory)
• what was the critical question?

  about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?

  • Replace ‘hit‘ with smashed collided, bumped and contacted for 4 other groups