Question

What were the findings of the Loftus & Palmer (1975) study? How do they relate to your findings?

Answer 1

Loftus and Palmer (1975) study was based on how we use our memory when we interpret any incident or crime. The idea in their research was how our previous knowledge sometimes mould the incident or how it effects our memory.

EYE-WITNESS TESTIMONY according to Loftus,The person who witnesses a crime or who has got any important information about the case can be asked to testify about the case. This act is purely based on our memory because we have to retrieve all the information related to the case.

In their experiment they have conluded that there are two types of memory we hold, 1. our pre-concetualised memory and 2. post-conceptualised memory. In other words, language and the terminology used in the experiment may sometimes distort or alter the memory of an individual about a particular event. Also, due to Response Bias (misinterpretation of an event but actually not considered wrong), the way of questioning may sometimes manipulate the responses of an individual.

Therefore we can say that the information acquired earlier can effect the memory observed regarding a particular event, also we sometimes add our own schema and our pre-conceptualised knowledge while reporting an incident.