Loftus And Palmer

Question 1

What area is this study

Answer 1

Cognitive area

Question 2

What is the key theme

Answer 2

Memory

Question 3

What is the aim of the study

Answer 3

To investigate the effect of leading questions on eye witness testimony of car crashes

Question 4

Research method ?

Answer 4

Lab experiment

Independent measures design

Question 5

What is the independent variable

Answer 5

The verb used

Contacted/ hit/ bumped/ collided/ smashed

Question 6

What is the dependent variable

Answer 6

The estimate of speed

Whether the ppt saw glass

Question 7

How many ppts were in experiment 1

Answer 7

45 students

Question 8

How many groups were the students/ ppts divided into in experiment 1

Answer 8

The 45 students were divided into 5 groups

Question 9

What was the procedure of experiment 1

Answer 9

The students watched 7 film clips of car accidents from driver safety training films

After watching the films the students were asked to do two things :
Write an account of what they had seen
Answer questions on what they had seen
One question was the critical question - about how fast were the cars going when they (verb) eachother

Question 10

What were the 5 conditions( verbs) in the experiment

Answer 10

Contacted 
Hit
Smashed 
Collided
Bumped

Question 11

Results of the speed estimates for the verb smashed

Answer 11

40.8 mph

Question 12

Results of the speed estimate for collided

Answer 12

39.3

Question 13

Results of the speed estimate for bumped

Answer 13

38.1mph

Question 14

Results of the speed estimate for hit

Answer 14

34 mph

Question 15

Results of the speed estimate for contacted

Answer 15

31.8 mph

Question 16

Results for the 4 staged films where speeds were accurately measured

Answer 16

The film of a crash at 20mph was estimated to be 37.7mph
The film of a crash at 30mph was estimated to be 36.2mph
The films of crashes at 40mph were estimated to be 39.7mph and 36.1

Question 17

Conclusion of experiment 1

Answer 17

How the question was phrased influenced the participants speed estimates

When the verb smashed was used, ppts estimated that the cars were travelling much faster than when the verb ‘contacted’ was used

People are not very good a judging vehicular speed

Question 18

What were Loftus and palmers 2 explanations for experiment 1

Answer 18

1) response bias- the critical word makes ppts think they should answer in a particular way
2) memory is altered - the critical word changes a persons memory do they actually ‘ see’ the accident differently

Question 19

How many ppts were in experiment 2

Answer 19

150 students

Question 20

What was the procedure for experiment 2

Answer 20

Students watched a one minute film which showed a 4 second multiple car accident
After the film, the participants were divided into three experimental groups

Question 21

What were the three experimental groups asked

Answer 21

Group 1 - ‘how fast were the cars going when they HIT eachother

Group 2 - ‘how fast were the cars going when they SMASHED INTO eachother ?

Group 3 - was asked NO QUESTION about the speed of the cars

Question 22

One week after the experiment (experiment 2) the ppts were asked to return. A critical question was asked, what was the question

Answer 22

“Did you see any broken glass?”

There was no broken glass in the film

Question 23

What were the results of the critical question

Answer 23

Twice as many ppts in ‘smashed’ group said they saw broken glass compared to ‘hit’ or control group
‘Smashed’ - 16 ppts said they saw glass
‘Hit’- 7 ppts said they saw glass
Control- 6 ppts said they saw glass

Question 24

Conclusion of experiment 2

Answer 24

Leading questions had actually altered the ppts memory of the event
Loftus and Palmer sugggest that two kinds of information go into a persons memory for an event:
Firstly, the persons own perception at the time of the event, and secondly information supplied after the event