Loftus and Palmer

• Background

  • Interested in the fragility of memory - how easy it is to forget information
  • Interested in the validity of eye witness testimony
• Aim

  To investigate the effect of language on memory
• Experiment one sample

  • Washington USA
  • 45 students split into groups of 9
• Experiment 1 procedure

  1. Watch - 7 clips from the Evergreen Safety Council of the Seattle Police were shown. Videos lasted between 5 & 30 seconds. 4/7 clips were staged crashes where speed was known
  2. Questions - asked to give an account of the accident and answer questions about the accident. Asked about the speed using different control words
• Experiment 1 results

  • Smashed - av. speed guessed was 40.8
  • Collided - av. speed guessed 39.3
  • Bumped - av. speed guessed 38.1
  • Hit - av. speed guessed 34.0
  • Contacted - av. speed guessed 31.8
• Experiment 1 conclusions

  • People are not good at estimating speed of cars
  • Form of question does not change answer given by witness
• Experiment 2 sample

  • Washington USA
  • 150 students split into 3
• Experiment 2 procedure

  • Participants were shown a clip lasting 1 minute of multiple car crashes. They then answered a questionnaire which included a critical question which was changed for each group: What speed was the car going at when they HIT each other? What speed were the cars going when they CRASHED? And a control group where they weren't asked about speed
  • A week later participants returned to answer ten more questions including the critical question: "Did you see any broken glass?"
• Experiment 2 results

  • 16/50 people remembered seeing glass in crashed condition
  • 7/50 people remembered seeing glass in hit condition
  • 6/50 people remembered seeing glass in control condition.
• Experiment 2 conclusion

  • The form of the question does change the witnesses memory