Theories Actually Seen As A Witness

This was a study about how the questions leading an investigation can change the way a witness explains what they saw, the witness’ memory of the events can be changed or supplemented. For the study they did two experiments, the first experiment they gathered 45 American students, the experiment was conducted in a laboratory which had five conditions, each participant only experienced one of the conditions. The first experiment consisted of 7 films of tragic accidents which were presented to each group in no specific order, the films ranged from 5 to 30 seconds. After each of the films the participants were asked to describe the accident as if they were witness’. The participants were then asked specific questions this included the question ‘About how fast were the cars going when they (smashed/ collided/ bumped/ hit/ contacted) each other?’ Loftus and Palmer had found out that the estimated speed was affected by the verb used for example the participants who were asked what speed the cars were going when they smashed thought that the car was going faster than participants who were asked the speed of the car when the cars hit. The question that was used had already systematically affected the participant’s recollection of the accident. In conclusion the results of the experiment had shown that the verb had altered the
The memory representation is altered – the critical verb can change the participant’s perception of the accident; some critical words can lead to the accident being more serious than if other verbs were used. This perception will then be stored into the recollection of the event for the participant.

If the second theory is correct it should also alter some of the memories from the accident, Loftus and Palmer conducted a second experiment to test