Experiment+3

= Learning Theories-Team 7 =

=﻿Article: Semantic Integration of Verbal Information into a Visual Memory= Elizabeth F. Loftus, David G. Miller, Helen J. Burns

Experiment Three
Does it makes a difference if we present information at different time intervals after the event?

Method
The method was similar to Experiment 1 with the following variations:
 * 648 students
 * All participants received either course credit, or were paid for their time
 * The "time" variable was changed between the initial and final slides

Procedures
Half of the subjects were shown one slide Half were shown the other slide
 * Slides:**

The time between the questionnaire and the forced-choice test was either:
 * Questionnaire:**
 * 20 minutes
 * 1 day
 * 2 days
 * 1 week

The critical question on the questionnaire was number 17 mentioning either a stop sign, yield sign, or no sign at all. Therefore, some students received misleading information while others received consistent information.

All subjects read a 20 minute "filler" story after seeing the slides.

An addition group of 72 students received both the questionnaire and the forced-choice test directly after the filler activity.

Each participant was required to do a forced-choice recognition test in which the had to choose which slide they were shown (figure 1 or 2 from Experiment 1).
 * Forced-Choice Recognition Test:**

This was presented after the questionnaire at one of the 4 intervals mentioned above.

Students were also asked to give a "confidence rating" of how sure they were that they chose the correct slide on a scale of 1-3 (1 being sure and 3 being a guess).

Results
In general, correct responses were more confident than incorrect responses. No group was either entirely sure or completely guessing.

Longer retention intervals led to worse performance. Misleading information also led to worse performance.
 * //"Oh no, I have not seen this for an entire week, I really do not remember which picture it was!"//**

False information had the greatest impact when it was presented immediately after the event.

Continue to Experiment 4 >