RELIABILITY OF MEMORY
G10 PSYCH
CLASS 108
CLASS OBJECTIVE
EXPLORE THE RELIABILITY OF ONE
COGNITIVE PROCESS, FOCUSING ON
T H E R E C O N S T R U C T I V E N AT U R E O F
MEMORY
RECAP
• In our exploration of the cognitive
approach, we have studies two models of
memory (MSM and WMM) and we looked
at how human beings process information
through schemas (schema theory)
• When we explored schema theory, we
mentioned that memory has a
reconstructive nature.
• Today we will focus on exploring this
reconstructive nature of memory and its
implications for the reliability of this
process.
DO YOU TRUST YOUR MEMORY?
RELIABILITY OF MEMORY
• In the video we just saw
we experienced how
our memory might miss
out on certain things
that happened when
we recall information.
• But the reliability of
memory is something
that goes beyond
seeing the gorilla and
the curtain change
color.
R E C O N S T R U C T I V E N AT U R E O F O F M E M O R Y
• The evidence so far suggests that memory is
a constructive cognitive process, almost
like the memories are built from how the
memory is cognitively processed.
• That in turn means that memory retrieval
requires reconstruction, or the re-building
of a memory's various components.
• This is where issues of reliability start
• We will now explore some studies that
provide evidence for or against the
reliability of memory
L O F T U S & PA L M E R ( 1 9 7 4 ) U N R E L I A B I L I T Y O F
MEMORY
L O F T U S & PA L M E R ( 1 9 7 4 ) U N R E L I A B I L I T Y O F
MEMORY
About how fast were the cars
going when they hit each other?
L O F T U S & PA L M E R ( 1 9 7 4 ) U N R E L I A B I L I T Y O F
MEMORY
About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed each
other?
L O F T U S & PA L M E R ( 1 9 7 4 ) U N R E L I A B I L I T Y O F
MEMORY
Aim:to investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect the estimation of speed.
Procedure: The researchers predicted that using the word ‘smashed’ would result in a higher
estimation of speed than using the word ‘hit’. The independent variable was the intensity of the verb
used in the critical question and the dependent variable was the estimation of speed. 45 students
participated in the experiment. They were divided into five groups of nine students. Seven films of
traffic accidents were shown and the length of the films ranged from 5 to 30 seconds. These films were
taken from driver’s education films. The study was an independent samples design; each participant
watched all 7 films.
Participants were asked to give an account of the accident they and seen and then they answered a
questionnaire with different questions on the accident with one question being the critical question
where they were asked to estimate the speed of the cars involved in the accident. The participants
were asked to estimate the speed of the cars. They were asked the same question but the critical
question included different words. One group of participants was asked, “About how fast were the
cars going when they hit each other?" The critical word "hit’" was replaced by ‘collided’, ‘bumped’
or ‘smashed’ or’ contacted’ in the other conditions.
L O F T U S & PA L M E R ( 1 9 7 4 ) U N R E L I A B I L I T Y O F
MEMORY
Conclusion: The results indicate that the critical
word in the question consistently affected the
participants’ answers to the question. The
researchers argued that it may be that the way the
question is formed results in a change in the
participant’s mental representation of the accident,
i.e. the verb "smashed" activates a cognitive
schema of a severe accident that may change the
participant’s memory of the accident. This
distortion of memory is based on reconstruction
so that it is not the actual details of the accident
that are remembered but rather what is in line with
a cognitive schema of a severe accident.
In conclusion, it seems that participants’ memory of
an accident could be changed by using suggestive
questions.
