Leading questions

• one way eyewitnesses can be misled is by leading questions, these are questions that encourage eyewitnesses to think about a particular aspect of the event or give a particular response. -
• Loftus and Palmer- pps watched videos of car crashes and complete a questionaire which included a critical question, - about how fast the cars were going when crashing into eachother, the verb in the question was the IV, pps were in one of 5 groups each who had a different verb- contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed.
• L plus P found those in the most extreme 'smashed' condition estimated the car was travelling on average 10mph faster than those in the 'contacted' condition.
• Evaluation of Loftus and Palmer study- research had standardised procedures meaning high control of extraneous variables, therefore they can be sure they are measuring the influence of the leading questions on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and not any other variable. the task lacks mundane realism
• loftus and palmer- task lacks mundane realism- watching car crash video does not reflect the same level of anxiety that would be experienced with watching a real one, internal state would be far different in real situation
• lacks mundane realism and lacks ecological validity
• research from L and P had RWA - led to the police putting focus on interviewing the eyewitness as soon as possible after the event and asking them questions to check the accuracy of their memory - therefore investigating the influence of post event discussion of the eyewitness testimony accuracy is useful