Memories Under the Influence

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this project was to find out the effects of the power of suggestion on one#s memory. Methods/Materials After viewing a video of people interacting, participants were given a set of five pictures and either asked #do you see the women who crossed the street last?" or "which one of these women crossed the street last?" None of the photos were of people in the video. Five males and five females were tested with each question. Results The results showed that people#s memories can be influenced by the power of suggestion. All ten subjects in the #Which One# group, the group tested with the influence of the power of suggestion, incorrectly thought that the woman who crossed the street last was among the presented pictures. Conclusions/Discussion In conclusion, the hypothesis was proven to be correct, and it was found that the power of suggestion can have an effect on people's memories. The experiment was a good test of the hypothesis but there could be a couple of improvements. Firstly, there could be a much enlarged sample size. The additional subjects could provide more accurate results, as there would be more data to analyze. A future change would be to inform the participants that they will be asked to identify one of the individuals subsequent to the video. Another addition that could possibly improve the experiment would be to emphasize for the #do you see# group, that the woman may not be amongst the pictures shown.

Awards (1)

• Third Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2016 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0724

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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