Loftus and Palmer

Question	Answer
COGNITIVE Loftus and Palmer (1974) Eyewittness	Aim: To investigate how information supplied after an event, influences a witness's memory for that event.
PP's: EX1. 45 uni students split into 5 groups. EX2. 150 uni students split into 3 groups.	All pp's were shown clips of car crashes. Each group was either given different words in a sentence or not asked a question at all.
Method: both studies were lab experiments using independent measure design. The possible words were smashed, collied, contacted, bumped + hit.	EX1. After watching the clips each group was asked "how fast was the car going when it ? the car?"
EX2. 2/3 group were asked with the words smashed and hit. The other group was not asked a question at all.	A week after the experiment, the third group were asked to complete a questionnaire which had the question "Was there any broken glass?"
Results EX1: 'Smashed' produced the fastest speed estimate and 'contacted' the slowest.	Image: L_P (image/jpg)
EX2: Again 'smashed' was highest. More pp's in the 'smashed' group recalled seeing broken than both the 'hit' and control group.	Image: L_P2 (image/jpg)
Conclusion: The way a question is phrased can influence and persons response.	People are not very good at judging vehicular speed.

Resource summary

	Created by mad-megz165 almost 11 years ago