Outline and evaluate research into the effects of leading questions on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

A01: Loftus and Palmer (1974). Investigated how misleading information can alter memory post event. They asked participants to estimate the speed of two cars, changing cues provided in the question. Participants watched the film of two cars crash, and were asked “how fast were the cars going when they (smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted)”. They found ‘smashed’ yielded the highest speeds, and ‘contacted’ the lowest. This shows memory can be altered, and is suggestible. - A02: Perhaps this has weak ecological validity, as it didn’t occur in real life but on a video clip. Therefore, it lacks the stress of a real-life event, which has been shown to affect memory. A strength is that this is a laboratory experiment so is reliable and replicable. Further, it has applications to the real world, showing eyewitness testimonies may be influenced by the questions.

Answered by Sianna B. • Psychology tutor

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