Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

1. Experiment one

   • The aim of this experiment was to investigate whether giving witnesses a different verb in the question would affect their perception of the same stimulus
   • The harsher the verb was to describe the car crash, the faster the witness thought the cars were going
   • This was a lab experiment which used and independent groups design
   • IV= What verb the experimenter gave the witness
   • DV= Whether someone's perception was affected through using different verbs
   • Each participant was exposed to the same stimulus material (video of a car crash). They were then each given different verbs and then asked to estimate the speed they thought the cars had been travelling at
   • The responses could be seen as biased due to many different reasons. Some include knowing the victim, having the same type of car, having a similar experience themselves...etc.

2. Experiment two

   • The participants/witnesses were exposed to the same stimulus video and then they were only given two different verbs. "Smashed" and "hit". The control group wasnt given a verb, they just watched the video. One week after this, the experimenter asked them if they had seen the broken glass. There wasn't actually any broken glass in the video. However, the participants who were given "smashed" verb were a lot more likely to say yes, even though there wasn't any.
   • The leading question did change the actual memory a participant had for an event
   • IV= What verb they were given
     • Whether being given a different verb would affect their memory of an event