Author: Amna Azam, Amna Fatima, Seher Fayaz, Um e Ruman, Muhammed Taimor Mir & Ume Laila
False memory refers
to the psychological misconception where a person recalls an incident
differently from the actual situation or recall something which has not
happened. The pioneer of the false memory phenomenon is Pierre Janet and
Sigmund Freud. Elizabeth Loftus discovered false memory and memory recovery
concepts in 1974. Misattribution, incorporation of misinformation, and
activation of associated information recommend being the underlying mechanism
and types of false memory.
Elizabeth Loftus and Jhon Palmer (1974) carried out the study to explore
the impact on language in the development of false memory. The experiment
comprised of two studies.
In the first experiment, the total number of 45 participants were shown
videos of a car accident. The car speed of different video was a collision at
20 mph, 30 mph, and 40 mph. The participants were asked to fill the
questionnaire, how fast the car was going, have they smashed to each other?
Each time the question was the same, but the verb used to describe collision
was different. The collision words were replaced with smashed, hit, collide,
contacted, and bumped. Participants reported the average speed of collision
between 35 mph below to 40 mph. The results of the experiment suggested that
the words used to describe collision were better to predict the estimated speed
rather than the actual speed.
Similar results were retrieved from the second experiment. The
participants were again shown the videos of car smashing. The word smashing was
replaced with hitting. The participants were asked to describe if they have
seen the broken glass in the video. Despite the fact that no glass was broken
in the video, the majority of participants reported yes. The second experiment
also showed participants videos of a car accident, but the critical thing was
the verbiage of the follow-up questionnaire. 150 participants were randomly
assigned to three conditions
The current study primarily focuses on the assumption that the words or
phrases heavily influence the response rate. Secondly, the study hypothesized
that phrasing of an item provides expectancies to formerly ignored information.
Therefore a misconstruction emerges in our memory recall. This misconstruction
recommends that false memory as an existing phenomenon.
The present study investigated the following question
Does the way of asking to affect a person's memory?
Can we change a person's memory according to your will (create False
memory)?
In this study, our group tries to create false memory and check whether
gender affects the creation of false memory. Our result likely supports the
above question that their answer is Yes, but it varies from person to person.
Our group tries to investigate does really words affect our memory
recall. Our group tries to create false memory in the student of GIFT
University about the dressing of your model and phone. The way we asked a
question not only affect but can also change their memory. More accurately, it
affects the person recalling. There were two lists (A and B) of questions, each
containing six questions. Questions of the list A are as following
Q1 Was he wearing a white shirt?
Q2 Was he wearing black jeans?
Q3 Was he wearing a cheek shirt?
Q4 Was he wearing a watch?
Q5 Was he wearing glasses?
Q6 Was there a butterfly on the back of the mobile?
Only Q 4 and 5 are correct because our model was wearing a watch and
glass. Other questions don’t match our model clothes. When my group asked
questions of the A list, people who answer was wrong was the same. In other
words, our model was wearing a black shirt. Some people replied he was wearing
a black shirt, which was correct while other people replied he was wearing a
white shirt, but the point to be noticed was that all people who give wrong
answers said it was white. We believe we have created a false memory in the
person's mind. It goes the same about the color and butterfly of the
jeans.
Questions of the B list are as follows
Q1 What was the color of the shirt?
Q2 What was the color of the jeans
Q3 What was the shirt design?
Q4 Was he wearing anything on the forearm?
Q5 Was he wearing any glass?
Q6 Was there anything on the back of the mobile?
When we asked the question of the B list people, the wrong answer
changed. One person replied he was wearing blue shirts; one said he was wearing
a red shirt. It goes the same for the answer for jeans and other things. The
people of B list give more accurate information about the model then A list of
people.
Method
Participant
We
did our experiment with the students who are sitting in the university and
using mobile or busy talking to their friends. The total number of participants
was 12. A number of the male was 6, and the female was 6.
Material
We used a
mobile with an owl on it back, and our model wears the same clothes on the very
experiment (black shirt and blue jeans). A golden watch and blue glass were
also wear by our model.
Procedure
Our model went to the students and said that he had found this
mobile(showing them the back of the mobile) in the Café, library, or class,
depending upon the student's location. He told the sir about the mobile, and
sir asked him to deliver it to the foundation and last office (office at GIFT
University to collect and return students lost things). Can you tell me where
this office? The students give different reactions, but in the end, tell the
direction of the office. The model follows the direction and goes to the
office. When the model is out of sight, then the group members come and tell
the student that she forgot her mobile in a cage, library, or class. Sir said
to her that a boy came to him with a mobile he found, the sir send him to the
found and lost office. Did you see him? The students replied yes, and he went
this way than the group asked the questions of the lists. In the end, they tell
the students this was our project, and we are also making a video of our
conversations.
Calculations
We could not make calculations reason is explained in
limitations.
Result
The result of our project is that the way of asking questions affects
the answer of the person. It can also change it according to your will. But not
too much as we think, especially the second part.
Limitations
The main problem we face and due to which we cannot make calculations
also is that students were not interested in our questions. They were talking
the way the model went rather than telling us about the model. It is quite
natural because if someone knew where something they will like to talk where it
is rather then talking who it looks like.
Some students were sitting in group, so we faced difficulties in dealing
with two-three students at one time.
I cannot get proper information about the topic. It was very difficult
to collect data on False memory
The weather was also a big pain. I will give friendly advice to the
readers; please avoid public experiment in mid of summer.