Loftus and palmer 1974

• Laboratory experiment, with independent measures.
• Aim - To see if changing the verb used in a leading question affects the answer given by eye witnesses.
• Procedure - Showed participants films of car accidents, then asked a series of questions about the events leading up to the accident. The leading question was 'how far were the cars travelling when they...?'. (Hit, smashed, contacted, collided).
• Findings - Mean estimate speed for contacted was 31.8mph, mean estimate speed for smashed was 40.5mph.
• Conclusions - The verb used, significantly affected speed estimates. The accuracy of eye witness testimony was affected by the misleading question. This effect might be because the critical verb biases a persons response, or actually alters their memory of an event.