Reliability of Memory

Reconstructive memory

People have to constantly rebuild memories when they try to remember something /influenced by factors such as beliefs or unrelated memories/people store memory traces of the past

Memory and biased questioning

Forced choice questions/leading questions

Loftus and Palmer

A: how leading questions can influence eye witness testimony

P: American students/shown video of car crash/randomly divided into groups/asked question about speed of the cars at the time of the accident/action word was replaced (smashed, hit,collided,bumped)/follow up experiment, asked if they saw broken glass

F: estimated that cars were travelling faster when question used ‘smashed’/more participants reported seeing broken glass when the question used ‘smashed’ (there was none)

C: leading questions can alter memory of an event/’smashed’ is associated with severe accidents

Evaluate Loftus and Palmer

• Well controlled laboratory experiment: demonstrated a casual relationship between the verb in the leading question and the speed estimate and whether broken glass was reported

• All American university students: not generalizable

• took place in a laboratory and speed estimate carried no real life significance: may not have been accurate