PSYCH 140M Lecture Notes - Lecture 36: Yield Sign, Psych
Document Summary
Loftus (1980) loftus wanted to confirm that memories for events had actually changed (i. e. subjects weren"t answering that way for other reasons) Subjects viewed slides of an auto-pedestrian accident, which involved a car stopping at either a stop sign or yield sign. Questions included information biasing them away from what they had actually seen. Two days later, subjects" memory for event tested. To be sure subjects were trying their best to be accurate, they were offered a cash reward for being accurate. Most subjects still responded according to the misleading information. Rewards didn"t lead to any greater accuracy. Loftus concluded that the original memory trace is destroyed by misleading information. Performed the loftus stop sign / yield sign experiment. However, some subjects were presented the recognition slides in sequential, chronological order. Results: subjects in sequential condition could disregard the misinformation and recognize the original sign therefore, the original trace must have still existed.
