Discuss, with reference to relevant research studies, the extent to which one cognitive process is reliable.
One cognitive process: memory
memory is reconstructive (Barlett, 1932) and information processing is schema driven
memories are constructed after the fact and they are susceptible to post-event information and manipulations (Loftus and Palmer, 1974)
Eyewitness testimony
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Aim: To investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect the recall of memory
Procedure:
memory is reconstructive (Barlett, 1932) and information processing is schema driven
memories are constructed after the fact and they are susceptible to post-event information and manipulations (Loftus and Palmer, 1974)
Eyewitness testimony
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Aim: To investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect the recall of memory
Procedure:
- participants watched 7 film clips of different car accidents.After each clip, participants described what they saw and answered a number of questions about it
- critical question: asked about the speed of the car in the accident; leading question: contains hints about what the right answer may be
- the wording in the critical question changed: "about how fast were the cars going when they (insert verb here) each other?
- verbs include: contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed.
- arranged in ascending order (from slowest to fastest): contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed into
- the use of different words influenced participants' mental representation of the accident
Strength
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Limitations
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