INTERNAL ASSESMENT

Loftus and Palmer Car Crash Experiment

Tania Eskenazi, Valeria Salem, Ariela Akkad

13. Reconstructive memory. (Loftus)

Participants are shown a lm (e.g. of a car accident) and are later asked questions about what
they had previously seen. The questions are phrased di erently for each group. Does the way a
question is phrased in uence what the participant claims to remember?

INTRODUCTION

- Background Information: general concepts studied.

Loftus and Palmer's research on memory and the misinformation e ect has had a lasting
impact on the elds of psychology and law. They have both been recognized for their
contributions and have been in uential in shaping our understanding of how memory works,
the fallibility of eyewitness testimony, and the potential for false memories to be implanted or
manipulated.

The Loftus and Palmer car crash experiment is a classic study in the eld of psychology that
investigated the impact of leading questions on eyewitness testimony and memory recall.

The primary concept explored in the experiment is the untruth data e ect, it occurs when
exposure to false information in uences a person's memory of an event. In this case, questions
on eyewitness testimony and memory. The study revealed the "misinformation e ect," where
the phrasing of questions signi cantly in uences how people remember events. It highlighted
the fallibility of human memory and the malleability of recollection, emphasizing the importance
of unbiased questioning in legal and research contexts

The Loftus and Palmer experiment highlights the potential Unreliability of such testimony due
to the modi ability of human memory, as well as the suggestive nature of questions posed to
witnesses.

- Original experiment explained.

The Loftus and Palmer car crash experiment, conducted by Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer
in 1974, explored how the wording of questions could in uence eyewitness testimony and
memory. Forty- ve American students from the University of Washington formed an
opportunity sample. This was a laboratory experiment with ve conditions, only one of which
was experienced by each participant (an independent measures experimental design). 7 lms
of tra c accidents, ranging in duration from 5 to 30 seconds, were presented in a random
order to each group. After watching the lm participants were asked to describe what had
happened as if they were eyewitnesses. They were then asked speci c questions, including the
question “About how fast were the cars going when they (smashed / collided / bumped / hit /
contacted) each other?” Thus, the IV was the wording of the question and the DV was the
speed reported by the participants. The study revealed that the choice of verb signi cantly
a ected participants' speed estimates, illustrating the "misinformation e ect" and highlighting
the malleability of human memory. This experiment has important implications for the reliability
of eyewitness testimony and the potential for memory distortions due to suggestive
questioning.

- Aim
Loftus and palmer aimed to investigate the impact of leading questions on eyewitness
testimony and memory. Speci cally, the researchers sought to demonstrate and understand
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 the "misinformation e ect." This e ect occurs when exposure to misleading information, in this
case, the wording of questions, in uences a person's memory of an event. The researchers
aimed to examine how the use of di erent verbs in questions about a car accident video
a ected participants' memory and, in particular, their estimates of the speed of the vehicles
involved. By doing so, they aimed to highlight the malleability of human memory and the
potential for distortions in recollection caused by suggestive questioning.

- Explain Modi cations made to the original experiment

Forty- ve American students from the University of Washington formed an opportunity sample.
This was a laboratory experiment with ve conditions, only one of which was experienced by
each participant (an independent measures experimental design). 7 lms of tra c accidents,
ranging in duration from 5 to 30 seconds, were presented in a random order to each group.
After watching the lm participants were asked to describe what had happened as if they were
eyewitnesses. They were then asked speci c questions, including the question “About how
fast were the cars going when they (smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted) each
other?” Thus, the IV was the wording of the question and the DV was the speed reported by
the participants. The study revealed that the choice of verb signi cantly a ected participants'
speed estimates, illustrating the "misinformation e ect" and highlighting the malleability of
human memory. This experiment has important implications for the reliability of eyewitness
testimony and the potential for memory distortions due to suggestive questioning.

We will do this experiment to see how the di erent questions you ask people can a ect their
working memory and schemas. Working memory is the small amount of information that can
be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks, and a schema is a mental
framework that helps individuals organize, process, and store information about their
environment.

We will modify the variables that were used in original experiment, instead of using
(smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted) all of these words we will only use
(smashed / hit).

- APA Links
Mcleod, S., PhD. (2023). Loftus and Palmer (1974): Car crash experiment. Simply Psychology.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/loftus-palmer.html

Dixon, T. (2019). Key Study: Leading questions and the misinformation e ect – ” the car crash
study” (Loftus and Palmer, 1974). IB Psychology. https://www.themantic-education.com/
ibpsych/2019/02/25/key-study-leading-questions-and-the-misinformation-e ect-the-car-
crash-study-loftus-and-palmer-1974/
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