Elizabeth Loftus Theory

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One of the principals that define the cognitive level of analysis is humans are information processors, and mental processes guide our behavior. Elizabeth Loftus was concerned with how information following an event can affect an eyewitness’s account of an event. She was mainly researching the impact of how questions are worded and why leading questions can “reshape” or change the way we remember a certain event. Her theory was that she could alter a person’s memory of an event by simply presenting it to the participant carefully. Loftus and Palmer (1974) tested the way the wording of questions and information subsequent to a certain event can change the way someone remembers it with a video and a leading, carefully worded questions. Loftus

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