Memory: eyewitness testimony (leading questions)

Question 1

Who conducted the study?

Answer 1

Loftus and palmer (1974

Question 2

What was the aim for study 1?

Answer 2

To see if an eyewitness’s memory of an event can be influenced by leading questions

Question 3

What was the sample for the study?

Answer 3

-45 students

Question 4

What was the procedure for the study?

Answer 4

-participants shown 7 different video clips of a car crash
-asked to estimate the speed of the car
-participants were split into five groups and each group were asked a critical where the verb differed. eg: ‘smashed’, ‘contacted’.

Question 5

What was the critical question for the study?

Answer 5

‘How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’

Question 6

Which verb changed for every critical question?

Answer 6

‘Hit’

Question 7

What different verbs were used?

Answer 7

-contacted
-hit
-bumped
-collided
-smashed

Question 8

What were the estimated speeds for the verbs ‘contacted’ and ‘smashed’?

Answer 8

-contacted: 32mph
-smashed: 41mph

Question 9

What was a strength to the study?

Answer 9

-highly controlled lab study so high reliability.
-real world application: improved legal system as police carefully wording interview questions.

Question 10

What were some negatives to the study?

Answer 10

-response bias (don’t remember the speed but the verb acts as a clue)
-lacks ecological validity (yuille and cutshall found leading questions had no effect on witnesses to a real armed robbery)