Can False Memory Be Reformed Essay

Memory can be reformed, however, this fact is not always accurate; memory is frequently flawed due to people being biased with deductions about what we assume to happen and generate false memories. Reconstructive memory is a cause for memories that aren’t always reliable. During the year 1973, Loftus worked with sematic memory. She conducted an experiment where she presented an occurrence and had the participants list categories associated with the event. She measured the time of reaction, the category size and context effects, and typical explanations. The original replicated research experiment was the Loftus and Palmer 1974, hypothesizing whether words would influence the participant’s recollection; causing them to reconstruct memory. …show more content…
However, this time, the researchers asked the participants to return after a week and were then asked whether they noticed any broken glass. The participants with the verb “smashed” answered yes, despite not having broken glass at all in the clip, but the altercation of the verbs caused the participants to create a false memory that there were. Loftus and Palmer surmised that the verbs caused the participants to reconstruct their memory. As for the reason why I decided to replicate Loftus and Palmers 1974 study, the experiment lacked ecological validity and for the purpose of reinforcing the idea of reconstructive memory Loftus and Palmer had explored. Replicated from Loftus and Palmer 1974, my aim is to examine how leading questions could change recollection of memory. I hypothesized that the words would have a certain impact on the standards of the reconstruction of memory; where the more ‘extreme’ verb having a substantial amount of reconstruction. Essentially, my hypothesis is that language will influence the witnesses’ estimation on the speed of the car. My null hypothesis is that language will have no, if not little, influence on the participants speed