Edexcel A2 Psychology - Criminal Psychology: Loftus and Palmer

Loftus and Palmer:

• · The aim of Loftus and Palmer’s study was to discover the effects of leading questions on an eyewitness’s memory of an incident.
• 45 students were shown seven 5 – 30 second films of car crashes, and were asked questions about each film directly after each one was shown. Each questionnaire was the same, except for one question which varied depending on what condition the student was in. In one condition, the students were asked ‘How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ In the other conditions, the word ‘hit’ was replaced with either ‘smashed’, ‘bumped’, ‘collided’ or ‘contacted’.

• · After this initial procedure, 150 other participants were shown a single film with a multiple car accident. The participants were again given a questionnaire to fill in, and one question varied depending on what condition the participant was in. The question which varied was again asking about the speed of the car, and the participants were asked how fast the car was going when it either ‘hit’ or ‘smashed’ the other car. The final condition was not asked about the speed of the car, to act as a control. One week later the participants were asked to come back and were again asked questions about the film, although it was not shown again. All of the conditions were asked whether they saw any broken…