Loftus and Palmer (1974) Leading Questions, Procedure, Findings and Conclusions

Procedure

Included two separate but related experiments which aimed to investigate the influence of leading questions (ones that suggest what answer should be given.

Experiment 1

Saw 45 students in various groups and sizes watch 7 clips from car accidents lasting 5 – 30 seconds. Order of films differed for each group.

P’s were then given a questionnaire; asked them to describe collision and then had series of specific questions, including one about speed of vehicles in accident (critical question).

Five different verbs used - ‘smashed’, ‘collided’ ‘bumped’ ‘hit’ or ‘contacted’, each being given to nine participants.

Experiment 2

15O students, groups varying in size, film less than 1 minute, contained multiple car accident that was shown for 4 seconds.

After the film P’s were given a questionnaire. First asked them to describe collision then had series of questions. For 50 p’s this included the critical question about how fast were the…