Aims
To see if the phrasing of a question would affect estimates of speed and to apply the findings to the idea of leading questions in court.
Procedures (Experiment One)
45 students were put into 5 groups. They were shown 7 films of traffic accidents lasting between 5 and 30 seconds. After every film they filled out a questionnaire.
They were required to give an account of the accident and answer specific questions. The critical question was the one about the speed of the vehicles. Each group was asked ‘about how fast were the cars going when they…….each other?’ Then depending on the group the verb was contacted, hit, bumped, collided or smashed.
Results (Experiment One)
Mean speed estimates were as follows:
Contacted (31.8), hit (34), bumped (38.1), collided (39.3) and smashed (40.8)
Conclusions (Experiment One)
The form of a question can affect a witness’ answer. The word in the question could be used to help judge speed when the pp is unsure, or the word could affect or alter the memory of the incident and how severe it was.
Procedures (Experiment Two)
150 pps were shown a film with multiple car accidents. They were given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accident in their own words and then answer questions.
Some pps were asked questions about the speed with the word ‘hit’ and others had ‘smashed’. There was also a control where the pps were not asked about speed at all.
One week later they came back and were asked if they saw any broken glass – there was no broken glass in the film.
Results (Experiment Two)
The estimates of speed between ‘smashed’ and ‘hit’ had a difference of 2.46mph.
The word smashed caused 16/50 to say yes to the glass, hit was 7/50 and the control had 6/50.
Conclusions (Experiment Two)
The way the question is asked can affect the answer given. Memory is fed by the event and external information provided after. These are integrated over time to form one single memory.