In: Psychology
For this task you will examine the experiments of Loftus and Gardner. Describe and analyze each of these experiments. You will prepare two separate analyses; for each analysis, include the following:
A brief summary of the study
A one paragraph explanation of the background in the field leading up to the study, and the reasons the researchers carried out the project.
The significance of the study to the field of psychology
A brief discussion of supportive or contradictory follow-up research findings and subsequent questioning or criticism from others in the field
A summary of at least one recent experiment (within the past two years) that is related to the seminal experiment (Hint: Excellent sources for recent research summaries are the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology and the Association for Psychological Science).
Your own evaluation of whether the breakthrough experiments of Drs. Gardner and Loftus were examples of genius, the zeitgeist, or some other factor. Use their own autobiographical accounts as well as your analyses of their experiments and personal stories to support your opinion.
Loftus
Loftus has conducted an extensive research on the malleability of human memory. She is known for her work on the misinformation effect and eyewitness memory. She studied the creation and nature of false memories, including recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.
She worked together with Palmer (1974). Their main proposal was on an applied area of memory called the eyewitness testimony.
The research is based on Barlett's schema theory that suggests that memories can be influenced by previous knowledge of a person. Our memory constructs and reconstructs information, based on what was observed and the previous information which we hold.Therefore Loftus and Palmer carried out this research in order to study the ways in which memory can be influenced by post event information.
Memory is a crucial topic in Psychology and eye witness testimony is taken as a highly reliable source of information in many sectors. A study in this field suggesting the reliability of eye witness testimony would help make better decisions based on it. The results of this research could therefore be applied in many ways such as understanding a client's unconscious mind better.
The study is significant as it resulted in finding the two types of information that helps in creation of memory, that is, the information gained during an event and the information gained after an event. These two types of information lead to distortion or false memories as well because it is susceptible to change and decay.
Gardner:
Gardner's research was on intelligence, which is another cognitive study of psychology. His theory is known as the theory of multiple intelligence. He found out eight types of intelligence which are musical, visual, verbal, logical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. These represent the different types in which information is processed by a person.
Gardner believed that the conventional concept of intelligence was too narrow and restrictive and measures of IQ often exclude other intelligences that a person may possess. This led to his research on multiple intelligences.
Gardner's theory has been a landmark in the field of psychology and many psychologists have taken this theory as a base to expand their own field of studies. This theory is an attempt to understand and enhance learning, thinking and creativity at individual as well as institutional levels.
Researchers however question the validity of Gardner's work as the work lacks backup researches.