1. Question Wording and Eyewitness Testimony © POSbase 2005 The study of Loftus & Palmer (1974):Loftus & Palmer (1974): Participants viewed films about a car accident. They were then asked: „About how fast were the cars going when they [verb] into each other?“ The verb was either collided, bumped, contacted, hit, or smashed. Contributor

2. © POSbase 2005 The results showed that speed estimates depended on the verb given: ___________________________________ Verb condition:Speed (miles per hour) ___________________________________ Contacted:31.8 Hit:34.0 Bumped:38.1 Collided:39.3 Smashed:40.8 ___________________________________ Question Wording and Eyewitness Testimony

3. © POSbase 2005 In a second experiment, participants were asked whether they saw broken glass; in the film, no broken glass was shown. The distribution of „Yes“ and „No“ responses was: __________________________________ Verb conditionYesNo __________________________________ Control: 644 Hit: 743 Smashed:1634 __________________________________ Question Wording and Eyewitness Testimony

4. © POSbase 2005 The more a verb indicated speed, the higher were the speed estimates, and the higher was the likelihood that participants saw broken glass, although no broken glass was presented in the film. This finding clearly shows that the wording of a question influences subsequent answers, an issue also examined in survey research.survey research Question Wording and Eyewitness Testimony