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ELIZABETH F. LOFTUS
A N D JOHN C. PALMER
University of Washington
Two experiments are reported in which subjects viewed films of automobile accidents
and then answered questions about events occurring in the films. The question, “About
how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” elicited higher estimates
of speed than questions which used the verbs collided, bumped, contucted, or hit in place of
smashed. On a retest one week later, those subjects who received the verb smashed were
more likely to say “yes” to the question, “Did you see any broken glass?”, even though
broken glass was not present in the film. These results are consistent with the view that the
questions asked subsequent t o an event can cause a reconstruction in one’s memory of that
event.
How accurately do we remember the as to how fast a vehicle was actually traveling
details of a complex event, like a traffic (Gardner, 1933). In one test administered to
accident, that has happened in our presence? Air Force personnel who knew in advance
More specifically, how well do we do when that they would be questioned about the speed
asked to estimate some numerical quantity of a moving automobile, estimates ranged
such as how long the accident took, how fast from 10 to 50 mph. The car they watched was
the cars were traveling, or how much time actually going only 12 mph (Marshall, 1969,
elapsed between the sounding of a horn and p. 23).
the moment of collision? Given the inaccuracies in estimates of
It is well documented that most people are speed, it seems likely that there are variables
markedly inaccurate in reporting such numeri- which are potentially powerful in terms of
cal details as time, speed, and distance (Bird, influencing these estimates. The present
1927; Whipple, 1909). For example, most research was conducted to investigate one
people have difficulty estimating the duration such variable, namely, the phrasing of the
of an event, with some research indicating that question used to elicit the speed judgment.
the tendency is to overestimate the duration of Some questions are clearly more suggestive
events which are complex (Block, 1974; than others. This fact of life has resulted in
Marshall, 1969; Ornstein, 1969). The judg- the legal concept of a leading question and in
ment of speed is especially difficult, and legal rules indicating when leading questions
practically every automobile accident results are allowed (Supreme Court Reporter, 1973).
in huge variations from one witness to another A leading question is simply one that, either
This research was supported by the Urban Mass by its form or content, suggests to the witness
Transportation Administration, Department of Trans- what answer is desired or leads him to the
1 portation, Grant No. WA-11-0004. Thanks go to desired answer.
Geoffrey Loftus, Edward E. Smith, and Stephen In the present study, subjects were shown
Woods for many important and helpful comments,
films of traffic accidents and then they
Reprint requests should be sent to Elizabeth F. Loftus.
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, answered questions about the accident. The
Seattle, Washington 981 95. subjects were interrogated about the speed of
Copyright 0 1974 by Academic Press, Inc. 585
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Printed in Great Britain
586 LOFTUS AND PALMER
“sees” the accident as being more severe than with hit the estimate was 8.00 mph. These
it actually was. If this is the case, we might means are significantly different, t (98) = 2.00,
expect subjects to “remember” other details p < -05.
that did not actually occur, but are com-
mensurate with an accident occurring at TABLE 2
higher speeds. The second experiment was D ISTRIBUTION OF “YES” AND “NO” R ES-
designed to provide additional insights into PONSES TO THE QUESTION, “DID YOU SEE
A NY BROKEN GLASS?’
the origin of the differential speed estimates.
Verb condition
E XPERIMENT I1
Method Response Smashed Hit Control
~-
One hundred and fifty students participated
Yes 16 7 6
in this experiment, in groups of various sizes.
No 34 43 44
A film depicting a multiple car accident was
shown, followed by a questionnaire. The film
lasted less than 1 min; the accident in the film Table 2 presents the distribution of ‘.yes”
lasted 4 sec. At the end of the film, the subjects and “no” responses for the smashed, Itit, and
received a questionnaire asking them first to control subjects. An independence chi-square
describe the accident in their own words, and test on these responses was significant beyond
then to answer a series of questions about the the .025 level, ~ ~ ( =2 7.76.
) The important
accident. The critical question was the one result in Table 2 i s that the probability of
that interrogated the subject about the speed saying “yes,” P(Y), to the question about
of the vehicles. Fifty subjects were asked, broken glass is .32 when the verb sn?a.died is
“About how fast were the cars going when used, and .14 with hit. Thus smashed leads
they smashed into each other?” Fifty subjects both to more “yes” responses and to higher
were asked, “About how fast were the cars speed estimates. It appears to be the case that
going when they hit each other?” Fifty the effect of the verb is mediated at least in
subjects were not interrogated about vehicular part by the speed estimate. The question now
speed. arises : Is sniushed doing anything else besides
One week later, the subjects returned and increasing the estimate of speed? To answer
without viewing the film again they answered this, the function relating P(Y) to speed
a series of questions about the accident, The estimate was calculated separately for stiiashed
critical question here was, “Did you see any and hit. If the speed estimate is the only way
broken glass?” which the subjects answered in which effect of verb is mediated, then for a
by checking “yes” or “no.” This question was given speed estimate, P(Y) should be in-
embedded in a list totalling 10 questions, and dependent of verb. Table 3 shows that this is
it appeared in a random position in the list.
There was no broken glass in the accident, TABLE 3
but, since broken glass is commensurate with PROBABILITY OF SAYING “YES” TO, “D ID Y O U SEE
accidents occurring at high speed, we expected A NY B R O K ~GNL A SS ?’ CONDIT~ONALIZED ON S PEED
smashed question might more often say “yes” Speed estimate (mph)
k to this critical question. Verb --
condition 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
Results
The mean estimate of speed for subjects Smashed .09 .27 .41 .62
Hit .06 .09 .25 .50
interrogated with smaslted was 10.46 mph;
588 LOFTUS AP4D PALMER
not the case. P(Y) is lower for hit than for When these two pieces of information are
smashed; the difference between the two verbs integrated, the subject has a memory of an
ranges from .03 for estimates of 1-5 mph t o accident that was more severe than in fact it
.I8 for estimates of 6-10 mph. The average was. Since broken glass is commensurate
difference between the two curves is about .12. with a severe accident, the subject is more
Whereas the unconditional difference of . I8 likely to think that broken glass was present.
between the smashed and hit conditions is There is some connection between the 3
attenuated, it is by no means eliminated when present work and earlier work on the influence
estimate of speed is controlled for. It thus of verbal labels on memory for visually
appears that the verb smashed has other effects presented form stimuli. A classic study in
besides that of simply increasing the estimate psychology showed that when subjects are
of speed. One possibility will be discussed in asked to reproduce a visually presented form,
the next section. their drawings tend to err in the direction of a
more familiar object suggested by a verbal
DISCUSSION label initially associated with the to-be-
To reiterate, we have first of all provided a n remembered form (Carmichael, Hogan, &
additional demonstration of something that Walter, 1932). More recently, Daniel (1972)
has been known for some time, namely, that showed that recognition memory, as well as
the way a question is asked can enormously reproductive memory, was similarly affected
influence the answer that is given. In this by verbal labels, and he concluded that the
instance, the question, “About how fast were verbal label causes a shift in the memory
the cars going when they smashed into each strength of forms which are better representa-
other?” led to higher estimates of speed than tives of the label.
the same question asked with the verb When the experimenter asks the subject,
smashed replaced by hit. Furthermore, this “About how fast were the cars going when
seemingly small change had consequences for they smashed into each other?”, he is effect-
how questions are answered a week after the ively labeling the accident a smash. Extra-
original event occurred. polating the conclusions of Daniel to this
As a framework for discussing these results, situation, it is natural to conclude that the
we would like to propose that two kinds of label, smash, causes a shift in the memory
information go into one’s memory for some representation of the accident in the direction
complex occurrence. The first is information of being more similar to a representation sug-
gleaned during the perception of the original gested by the verbal label.
event; the second is external information
supplied after the fact. Over time, information
from these two sources may be integrated in
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