Procedures

• How were participants gathered in the first experiment?

  Opportunity Sampling
• What were they shown in the first experiment?

  7 filmed clips of traffic accidents
• How long were they?

  They ranged in length between 5- 30 seconds
• What were participants given after each clip?

  A questionnaire
• What did the questionnaire ask?

  To give an account of the accident they had just seen alongside specific questions about the accident.
• What were the videos originally made for?

  As part of a driver safety film.
• What was present in each questionnaire?

  A critical question
• What was the critical question?

  “About how fast were the cars going when they ____ eachother?”
• What did the space represent?

  The verb used to describe how fast the car was going when the collision happened.
• How many groups were there that were presented to the different verbs?

  5- with 9 in each
• What were the 5 verbs used in the experiment?

  Hit, Smashed, Collided, Bumped and Contacted
• What did experiment 2 consist of?

  Investigating whether leading questions simply bias a person’s or actually alter the memory stored.
• How many parts was this split up into?

  2
• What happened in the first part?

  Participants were shown a film of a multiple car crash but the actual collision only lasted 4 seconds.
• Then what happened?

  They were asked the critical question, “about how fast were the cars going when they ____ eachother?”
• How many groups experienced different variables (the verb)?

  3 groups with 50 participants in each
• What verb did group 1 receive?

  Smashed
• What verb did group 2 receive?

  Hit
• What was group 3?

  The control group- they weren’t exposed to any question
• What happened in part 2?

  A week later the participants were asked to return to the psychology laboratory and were asked further questions on the incident
• What was the critical question asked?

  Did you see any broken glass?
• Why was this significant?

  There was no broken glass in the video but those who thought the car was travelling faster might expect broken glass to be there?