Leading Question

Question 1

Def

Answer 1

A question that wrongly implies something about an event or crime.

Question 2

How does this affect EWT

Answer 2

Contaminates the witness’s memory and witness recall inaccurate information.

Question 3

Loftus and Palmer Aim

Answer 3

To investigate whether the phrasing of a question can affect PPT’s memory of an event

Question 4

Loftus and Palmer Method

Answer 4

Lab experiment

Question 5

Loftus and Palmer Sample

Answer 5

45 American Students (spilt into 5 groups of 9)

Question 6

Loftus and Palmer procedure

Answer 6

All ppts were shown a video of a car crash and each group was asked a leading question with a different verb (smashed , hit bumped or contacted)
How fast were the cars travelling when they each other?

Question 7

Loftus and Palmer Findings

Answer 7

PPT’s guessed a higher mean speed when they had smashed (40.5mph) compared to contacted (31.8mph)

Question 8

A strength into the effects of leading questions on the eye witness testimony it has practical application

Answer 8

principle of the theory of leading questions can influence the accuracy of EWT has led to improvement in the criminal justice system and development of the cognitive interview which avoids leading question. Therefore important part of applied psychology as helps with more accurate testimonies.

Question 9

Research into the effects of leading questions lacks mundane realism

Answer 9

Uses an artificial task of watching a video of a car crash. Difficult to generalise the findings of the research that leading question affect EWT as participants watching the video may not have motivation to give an accurate testimony. Lowering external validity.