2.1.14

Eye Witness Testimony - Loftus & Palmer

Test yourself

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Eyewitness testimony is information given by a witness to a crime. Loftus and Palmer (1974) studied the effects of leading questions in two experiments.

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EWT

  • Eyewitness testimony is the information and details given to police by witnesses.
  • Facts such as location/time/events of the crime scene and the appearance of the criminal are given.
  • But they can be inaccurate because of both faults in memory, and leading questions.
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Leading questions

  • Leading questions are questions that potentially guide a witness to a certain answer.
  • For example, a leading question could be:
    • “Did you forget to do your homework?”
  • A better-phrased question could be:
    • “What happened with your homework?”
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Experiment one

  • Participants were shown a film of 2 cars crashing and were then asked questions about the events of the car crash.
  • Questions included:
    • “How fast do you think the cars were going when they hit?”
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Method

  • The word "hit" was then substituted for different participants. - Examples of other words used instead of 'hit' were:
    • Smashed.
    • Bumped.
    • Contacted.
    • Collided.
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Results

  • Participants estimated different speeds when different words were used.
    • Participants tended to give higher speeds when the word "smashed" was used. On average they estimated 41 mph.
    • The word "contacted" gave the lowest average speed estimate of 32 mph.

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Eyewitness testimony is information given by a witness to a crime. Loftus and Palmer (1974) studied the effects of leading questions in two experiments.

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Experiment two

  • Three groups of participants were used in this experiment:
    • Group 1 were participants that were given the word ‘smashed’.
    • Group 2 were participants that were given the word ‘hit’.
    • Group 3 were participants that were given no suggestion of the speed of the car.
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Method

  • After one week, the participants were brought back in and asked the question:
    • “Did you see any broken glass?”
  • The correct response would have been ‘no broken glass’ as there was no broken glass seen in the film.
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Results

  • Group 1 (‘smashed’ group) were more likely to say that they had seen broken glass compared to the other two groups.
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Conclusion

  • Both experiment 1 and experiment 2 support the conclusion that leading questions (even just changing one word like ‘smashed’) can affect the accuracy of the eyewitness testimony.
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Laboratory study

  • This was a laboratory study and so had good control of extraneous variables.
  • But because a film was shown and it was an artificial setting, it may not give an accurate depiction of eyewitness testimony.
  • Real-life scenarios, such as a car crash, can be traumatic and emotionally arousing. So this trauma can also have effects on memory.
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Demand characteristics

  • Demand characteristics are when participants in a study may distort the results of the study by being aware of what the aim of the study is.
  • The participants in this study may have been aware of its true purpose (by being asked leading questions, they may realise the study was about vulnerability to leading questions.)
  • If this were the case, the reliability and validity of the results would be compromised.
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Usefulness

  • A strength of this study is the real-life implications.
  • If police officers have this information, they can conduct more reliable and trustworthy police interviews.
  • Police want to gain the most accurate facts, so they should be made aware of the effects of leading questions.
  • Police should set guidelines and give information on how to formulate proper/non-leading questions.

Jump to other topics

1Social Influence

2Memory

3Attachment

4Psychopathology

5Approaches in Psychology

6Biopsychology

7Research Methods

8Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)

9Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)

10Option 1: Gender (A2 only)

11Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)

12Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)

13Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)

14Option 2: Stress (A2 only)

15Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)

16Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)

17Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)

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