Lost In the Mall by Elizabeth Loftus - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Lost In the Mall by Elizabeth Loftus

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Lost In the Mall by Elizabeth Loftus Tucker Bryant & Ellis Schirmer Theory & Hypothesis The act of imagining false events led to the creation of false memories. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Lost In the Mall by Elizabeth Loftus


1
Lost In the Mall by Elizabeth Loftus
  • Tucker Bryant Ellis Schirmer

2
Theory Hypothesis
  • The act of imagining false events led to the
    creation of false memories.
  • Confabulations can be created through
    suggestions.

3
Research design procedure
  • Asked 24 individuals, ranging from 18 to 53, to
    try to remember childhood events that had been
    recounted by a relative.
  • Prepared a booklet for each participant
    containing one-paragraph stories about three
    events that had actually happened to them, and
    one that had not.
  • Reconstructed the false event using information
    about a shopping trip provided by relatives, who
    verified that participant had in fact been lost
    at about the age of five.
  • The lost-in-mall scenario included lost for a
    time period, crying, aid and comfort by an
    elderly woman, and reunion with family.

4
The results
  • 25 of the participants remembered the fictious
    event. ( 6 out of 24)
  • The study provides evidence that people can be
    led to remember their past in different ways, and
    they can even be coaxed into remembering entire
    events that never happened.

5
Ethical issues
  • Participant manipulation
  • Potential for clinical misuse
  • Nadean Cool Had memories planted by psychiatrist
  • Undisclosed aim

6
Ecological Validity
  • Lab experiment slightly impaired
  • No risk of demand characteristics
  • Focus on cognition leaves little room for
    ecological application

7
Evaluation
  • PRO
  • Well-controlled
  • Replicable
  • Demonstrates cause effect relationship
  • Supports hypothesis
  • Serves as evidence to further conclusions
  • Permits objectivity and unbiased observations
  • Uses a wide sample of ages
  • Good use of operationalization prevents observer
    bias
  • CON
  • Social facilitation
  • Extraneous variables personality
  • Ethical issues with potential application
  • Has been used to draw certain wild conclusions
  • May be situation-specific
  • Survey may be biased by the way questions are
    asked
  • Possible sampling bias

8
Could this study be done today?
  • Replication of exact study is feasible
  • Many replications and variations performed to
    date
  • Most studies demonstrate similar
    conclusions/evidence
  • Certain variations pose potential ethical
    breaches
  • Experiment is fairly recent 1991

9
What makes this a classic study?
  • Verifies inference most people tend to make or
    refute
  • Demonstrates awesome power of subconscious
  • Uses power of suggestion
  • Proves the human tendency to confabulate
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