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Replicating Weapon Focus (Loftus 1987) for my Psych IA - Help!


udawn

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Hi! 

I plan to replicate Loftus' 1987 study on the Weapon Focus Effect (WFE) for my psychology (HL) ia, however I am aware that Loftus used a corneal reflection device in order to see how much time was spent looking at the cheque/gun (in order to provide evidence for the WFE) in addition to a questionnaire and asking p's to identify who the man in the video was.

Is it okay to do my IA on this experiment if I were to exclude the element of measuring how much time is spent looking at the cheque/gun because its a bit complicated to do? 

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On 17/02/2017 at 1:55 PM, udawn said:

Hi! 

I plan to replicate Loftus' 1987 study on the Weapon Focus Effect (WFE) for my psychology (HL) ia, however I am aware that Loftus used a corneal reflection device in order to see how much time was spent looking at the cheque/gun (in order to provide evidence for the WFE) in addition to a questionnaire and asking p's to identify who the man in the video was.

Is it okay to do my IA on this experiment if I were to exclude the element of measuring how much time is spent looking at the cheque/gun because its a bit complicated to do? 

You are allowed to do partial replications of experiments, as long as you have an IV and a DV. I believe if you removed the corneal reflection device, then you would still have two variables. The IV - the weapon, DV - whether the man was identified or not. It seems like it would be hard to replicate this study as you would have to employ confederates that your participant didn't know. I think you could do well with it, but you probably could have an easier time with some other studies from the CLOA, i.e Loftus and Palmer in 1974, Brewer and Treyens in 1981 or even some concrete/abstract words and memory studies. 

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19 hours ago, aTeddy said:

You are allowed to do partial replications of experiments, as long as you have an IV and a DV. I believe if you removed the corneal reflection device, then you would still have two variables. The IV - the weapon, DV - whether the man was identified or not. It seems like it would be hard to replicate this study as you would have to employ confederates that your participant didn't know. I think you could do well with it, but you probably could have an easier time with some other studies from the CLOA, i.e Loftus and Palmer in 1974, Brewer and Treyens in 1981 or even some concrete/abstract words and memory studies. 

Hi! Thanks so much for your reply! I agree that Loftus & Palmer's 1974 study would be easier to replicate (idk why i didnt choose that in the first place, really. maybe because we kinda learnt about it in TOK?) I was thinking of using two videos that I found on youtube but I found that the gun condition video was shorter than the cheque condition (duration for showing the gun was much shorter) 

I have asked guidance from teachers and they said that I can use pictures instead, so I think may screenshot the main parts of the videos instead! I think my DV will be the number of correct responses to a questionnaire that I will write up (eg- was the man wearing a hat?) I don't think I will be measuring if P's can identify the man correctly because I would have to find mugshots or something which is a bit problematic.

The last resort is that I will do Loftus' 1974 study :) (I don't really feel like changing right now because I already did research for this WFE study and I'm a bit lazy to redo it. heh)

 

Sorry about this but, what do you mean by "you would have to employ confederates that your participant didn't know"?

Thanks so much for your reply once again!

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4 hours ago, udawn said:

Hi! Thanks so much for your reply! I agree that Loftus & Palmer's 1974 study would be easier to replicate (idk why i didnt choose that in the first place, really. maybe because we kinda learnt about it in TOK?) I was thinking of using two videos that I found on youtube but I found that the gun condition video was shorter than the cheque condition (duration for showing the gun was much shorter) 

I have asked guidance from teachers and they said that I can use pictures instead, so I think may screenshot the main parts of the videos instead! I think my DV will be the number of correct responses to a questionnaire that I will write up (eg- was the man wearing a hat?) I don't think I will be measuring if P's can identify the man correctly because I would have to find mugshots or something which is a bit problematic.

The last resort is that I will do Loftus' 1974 study :) (I don't really feel like changing right now because I already did research for this WFE study and I'm a bit lazy to redo it. heh)

 

Sorry about this but, what do you mean by "you would have to employ confederates that your participant didn't know"?

Thanks so much for your reply once again!

OK, good luck! 

I just meant, if you where going to get actual people to come in with a weapon / non weapon, then you would have to get people who didn't know each other. 
Anyway, I hope it works out :)

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