Problems affecting eye witness testimony

Loftus and Palmer

• showed film of car crash
• 45 uni students divided into 5 coniditions (asked "how fast were the cars going when they smashed/bumped/hit/collided/contacted")
• smashed = 40.5mph average
  
• contacted = 31.8mph average

so it is evident that the phrasing of the same question impacted the individual's memory of the incident, thus, misleading questions affect the accuracy of eye witness testimony.