Critical review - PL1D100
Overview
The purpose of the study was to test if the memory of an event can be reconstructed by the questions asked subsequently. Two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, forty-five participants watched videos of traffic accidents, ranging from five to thirty seconds long. After watching each video, the subjects were asked questions about the accident, with the crucial question being “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, but different groups of participants were asked with different verbs, such as “smashed” and “bumped”. The results from this experiment indicate that the speed estimated by participants was affected by what verb was used.
In the second experiment, conducted …show more content…
It was also believed that there existed variables possessing the power to potentially influence a person’s answer when giving these estimates. Therefore, the aim of the first experiment was to test one of these variables, namely, if the form of a question would affect the memory of the event.
Forty-five American students, divided into groups of various sizes, were shown seven films, all depicting traffic accidents. The films lasted for between five to thirty seconds, and after watching each film, the participants were asked to answer questions about the accident, with the crucial question being to estimate the speed of the vehicles. Out of the forty-five subjects, nine were asked “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, and equal numbers of the remaining subjects were asked the same question, but with the verbs bumped, smashed contacted, and collided in place of “hit”. The order of the films presentation was different for every group of subjects, and the experiment lasted for about an hour and a half.
The results showed that people were indeed not very good at estimating the speed of a vehicle in motion, and also that the change of verbs (the form of the question) did have an effect on the
Overview
The purpose of the study was to test if the memory of an event can be reconstructed by the questions asked subsequently. Two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, forty-five participants watched videos of traffic accidents, ranging from five to thirty seconds long. After watching each video, the subjects were asked questions about the accident, with the crucial question being “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, but different groups of participants were asked with different verbs, such as “smashed” and “bumped”. The results from this experiment indicate that the speed estimated by participants was affected by what verb was used.
In the second experiment, conducted …show more content…
It was also believed that there existed variables possessing the power to potentially influence a person’s answer when giving these estimates. Therefore, the aim of the first experiment was to test one of these variables, namely, if the form of a question would affect the memory of the event.
Forty-five American students, divided into groups of various sizes, were shown seven films, all depicting traffic accidents. The films lasted for between five to thirty seconds, and after watching each film, the participants were asked to answer questions about the accident, with the crucial question being to estimate the speed of the vehicles. Out of the forty-five subjects, nine were asked “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, and equal numbers of the remaining subjects were asked the same question, but with the verbs bumped, smashed contacted, and collided in place of “hit”. The order of the films presentation was different for every group of subjects, and the experiment lasted for about an hour and a half.
The results showed that people were indeed not very good at estimating the speed of a vehicle in motion, and also that the change of verbs (the form of the question) did have an effect on the