AO1

• Loftus and Palmer conducted three experiments into how misleading information affects eye-witness testimony.
• Experiment 1


  45 participants watched a video of a car accident and were then asked to fill out a questionnaire about what happened. There was 1 critical question which asked how fast they think the car was going before the accident, with a different verb for each group. The verbs varied from collided, bumped, hit, smashed and contacted. Those with the more violent verb such as smashed report the cars going faster than those who had less violent verb's like hit. This shows how misleading information affects eyewitness testimony.
• Experiment 2


  A week after the first experiment, ppts returned and were asked if they saw any broken glass in the video, even though there was none. Those with the verb 'smashed' were more likely to say they had seen broken glass compared to those in the control group or those who had the verb 'hit'. This shows how misleading information can greatly influence eyewitness testimony and even make them think they saw something that never happened.
• Experiment 3


  There were two groups of participants, one shown a video of a car stopping at a STOP sign, and the other of a car stopping a YIELD sign. Participants of each group where then split into a consistent or inconsistent group, where they were asked whether they saw another car pass while they were at the same sign they watched, or a different sign they watched. E.g watched video on STOP sign, asked about STOP sign (consistent) or asked about YIELD sign (inconsistent).
• Experiment 3: results

  75% of those in the consistent group reported seeing another car pass, compared to 41% of those in the inconsistent group.
• Post event discussion is when a witness speaks to someone else about the events that they watched take place. This can lead to false memories being created, known as memory contamination. Post event discussion can also cause memory conformity, where people conform to what other people say they have seen even if they didn't see that themselves.
• Gabbert et al conducted research investigating how post-event discussion affects eye-witness testimony. She studied participants in pairs, who both watched the same video but from different perspectives. 71% of people recalled things from the video that they did not see but was talked about during the discussion. This shows memory conformity.