wjec psychology findings and conclusions (loftus and palmer)

Loftus and palmer carried out two experiments in their 1974 stufdy. In experiment one, the results show that questions containing verbs such as 'smashed' produced significantly higher speed estimates. These type of words suggests geeather speeds and impact of the accident. Wen the word 'smashed; was used in the wuestions, the mean speed estimate was 40.5 mph. Participants were not very good at judging how fast a vehicle was going The actual speed of the vehicle in the film contributed little to the participants estimates. The verb that led to the lowest mean speed estimate (31.1 mph) was 'contacted'.

--- In the second experiment they discovered that the mean estimate of speed was significantly higher for the group exposed to 'smashed' (10.46 mph) that for those exposed to 'hit' (8mph). Also, a week later, 16 out of 50 people in the 'smashed' group repported…