Based on Loftus et al’s study the aim of this experiment is to investigate whether people make more errors in response to questions using the definite article compared to the indefinite article.
Hypothesis
The Alternative Hypothesis - Participants asked the question with the definite article will have a higher number of incorrect answers in the memory test than those asked the question including the indefinite article.
The Null Hypothesis - There will be no significant difference between the number of incorrect answers given in the memory test by those asked the question with the definite article and the number of incorrect answers given by those asked the question with the use of the indefinite article. Any difference that does occur will be down to chance.
Method
Design
My experiment is an independent group design as I am asking some participants the question with the definite article and different participants the question with the indefinite article.
The Independent Variable (IV) – whether the question asked contains the definite (the) or indefinite (a) article.
The Dependent Variable (DV) – the number of incorrect answers given, how many participants claim to see the non-existent item when the definite article is used.
One extraneous variable that will have to be controlled is Demand Characteristics. This is where the participants discover the aim of the experiment, this affects their natural behaviour and they try and defeat the aim of the experiment. This would have an effect on the number of errors made by participants as they will know that when they are being questioned about items on the image, they may not have be there and participants wil1 deliberately try and please the experimenter and this would not be their natural behaviour.
To control this extraneous variable, the experimenter will ask the participants 5 questions within which is the one that they will be analysing .The question that they will be analysing is the question that contains the definite or indefinite article. The remaining 4 questions are distracter questions for participants so they are less likely to uncover the true aim of the experiment.
There are many ethical issues that should be controlled in this experiment, however the main issue that should be controlled is informed consent. It is very important to have consent from participants as they must feel that they will not be harmed or embarrassed and that they have the right to withdraw at any point. To control this all participants must be over the age of 16. All participants will have to sign a consent form giving their consent. They will be asked if they understand the brief and what they are going to be asked to do throughout the experiment.
Participants
The target population is both males and females of any race and ages 16–20.The location that the target population for this experiment is Morpeth, Northumberland.
The sampling method that will be used for this experiment is a non-random opportunity sample. A non – random opportunity sample is using people that are available and willing to partake in the experiment at a convenient time. This method has been chosen, as it is practical, quick and cheap. This is because no money was involved buying new software or advertising methods. It was less time consuming than arranging a stratified or random sample and as it was less time consuming it was much more convenient.
Materials
Materials that will be used in this experiment:
- 12 participants
- An image from the magazine Vogue
- A 5 question questionnaire, including one leading question about the image
These materials were used in my experiment as they were free of charge and available at the time. I chose the image out of vogue as it wasn’t insulting or would cause offence to anyone who took part in the experiment. It also had a lot going on, there were many colours, shapes and items on the page, which gave the participants a lot to think about. The experimenter chose to ask participants 5 questions even though they were only going to analyse and compare the answers to one of them. These questions were used as distracter questions so that the participant is lead to believe that the aim of the experiment is really a memory test.
The participants were shown this image for exactly 60 seconds before it was taken away from them. The experimenter then asked them 5 questions about the picture, 1 of which was a leading question, which the results will be focusing on. Participants had as much time as needed to answer the questions but the experimenter had to accept their first answer.
Procedure
I first approached possible participants in the sixth form centre at King Edwards VI high school in Morpeth and introduced myself as a psychology student and said I was looking for people to take part in a simple memory test, would they be willing to give me some of there time. If they agreed I gave them the consent form, which had a copy of the brief (see copy below and in appendix) at the top, this told the participants their task and introduced them to what they were going to have to do. They read through it and if they still agreed they would partake in the experiment they would and give formal informed consent in the form of a signature on the consent form. After each participant was found they were taken to a calm quiet area, shown the image for the 60 seconds and then asked the experimenter asked them the following questions - taking only their first answer – (the experimenter asked the participants each question and recoded their answer them-self):
In condition 1: Did you see a pink hat?
In condition 2: Did you see the pink hat?
6 participants were questioned in each condition; to chose which participants would go in each condition I put all the participants names into a hat and the first 6 names that were drawn, were put into condition 1 and the following 6 participants were put in condition 2. The experimenter asked participants the set of questions one at a time not all together, there was no time limit on answering each question.
Once the participants had been questioned they were shown a copy of the debrief (see copy below and in appendix), revealing the actual aim of this study and why they had been told otherwise at the beginning of this experiment.
Copy of the Brief, which participants were shown at the start
I am conducting this experiment to compare the difference between how accurate male memories are compared to females. In this experiment you will complete a memory test, which involves looking at an image for a timed interval. You will then be asked to answer 5 questions concerning the image you have just viewed. There are no risks involved and you may stop participating at any time without penalty. Your data will remain anonymous and confidential. When the tasks are done, you will receive a "debrief form" which will describe the reasons I am collecting this data. The experiment takes just under ten minutes.
Copy of the “Debrief”, shown to participants after the experiment
Before you took part in this study you were given a consent form telling you that you were participating in an experiment investigating the difference in memory between males and females. However this is not the real object of this study. This study was actually exploring how leading questions can effect how accurately an individual remembers specific details. You were part of one of two groups; both groups were asked the same five questions about the image presented to you, however question three was altered slightly for each group. One group was asked ‘Did you see a pink hat?’ and the other ‘Did you see the pink hat?’. The first group was asked the question using the indefinite article ‘a’ and group two was asked using the definite article ‘the’. The second group are more likely to claim that they saw this item even though it wasn’t on the picture, but because of the use of the definite article. This is the reason why you were not first informed of the real purpose of this study, if you were aware of the difference in language being used between the two groups, and the reason why the language was changed for the different groups it would have affected your natural behaviour and the results would have been inaccurate. This study is very helpful as it apply to eyewitness testimonies in a law court, if a witness is asked a leading question shortly after an accident, the leading question could actually change their memory. You were however not initially told the true purpose of this study so you are now given the opportunity to withdraw your results from this study if you choose.
Results
This is a table comparing the percentage of incorrect answers given when the question included the indefinite article and the percentage of incorrect answers given when the question included the definite article.
To find the raw results and how I calculated the percentage from the raw results of the experiment see the Appendix at the back.
Calculating the percentage of my results makes them much easier to compare as they are only one number, therefore I can clearly see the percentage of incorrect answers given by those participants presented with the definite article and those participants presented with the indefinite article.
These results show that peoples’ memory can be significantly mislead by use of the definite article. When participants’ were asked the question with the indefinite article there were considerably less incorrect answers than when the participants were asked the question with the definite article. When the participants were asked with the definite article it implied to the participant that the non – existent pink hat was on the image. The results from this experiment support Loftus et al theory that non – existent items can be inserted into a memory because leading questions.
This experiment accepts the Alternative Hypothesis and the Null Hypothesis was rejected, as it was proven that participants asked the question with the definite article in, had a higher number of incorrect answers than those asked the question including the indefinite article.
Discussion
The results that were collected from this experiment are very similar to what Loftus et al found in 1975. Loftus found that 70% of participants who were asked about a non – existent item (in the video they viewed) claimed they saw it; in this experiment 83% of participants claimed to see the non – existent item. Loftus formed the conclusion that people were mislead by the use of the definite article. This conclusion is similar to the one that can be drawn from this experiment as the number of incorrect answers given by those participants presented with the definite article was significantly higher than those presented with the indefinite article.
The conclusion that is drawn from the results of this experiment is that overall peoples’ memories are mislead by the use of the definite article. When participants were presented with the definite article there were significantly more incorrect answers given, which is what would be suggested by Loftus et al’s research. This is very important in matters of law, especially in a courtroom if a defendant is being convicted on eyewitness testimony alone. The lawyer may use skilful leading questions including the definite article to change the eyewitness’ memory of the event.
One limitation of this investigation is the sample size used. In this investigation the sample was only 12 people and therefore not large enough generalise to the whole of the target population. One way to improve this investigation would be to increase the sample size to 100 participants, I would then have 50 participants in each condition and therefore results would show a clear representation of the target population.
One way in which this investigation could be adapted for further research would be to change the independent variable. Instead of using the indefinite article in condition 1 and the definite article in condition 2, the definite article would be used in both conditions and the independent variable would be gender, therefore having males in condition 1 and females in condition 2 and both conditions would be questioned with the definite article to investigate whether it is males or females that are more likely to be mislead by the use leading question.
Abstract
References
Pennington D. (2005) Introducing Psychology – Approaches, Topics, Methods, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
