Leading questions can alter your memory (Car Crash Experiment)

Psych Papers

How reliable are our memories of past events? Are there situations in which we can’t trust our own memories? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the Car Crash Memory Experiment (Loftus & Primer, 1974) which tested whether a leading question can influence a person’s memory of an event. Can you implant memories based on how you ask somebody about a past event? Participants watched a video of a car crash and then answered questions about their memory of the car crash. Depending on how questions were worded (e.g., “How fast was the car going when it [bumped, smashed] the other car?”) influenced participants’ estimates of car speeds. Showing that memories can be influenced by wording of questions! Think about implications for legal trials and police interrogations.

Follow-Up Research: Psych Papers’ first replication study! Our follow-up research attempted to replicate the original study using a new car crash video. Turns out, replication research can be really tricky!

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Chapters

1. Introductions (00:00:00)

2. The First Study (00:00:56)

3. First Study Results (00:02:42)

4. The Second Study (00:03:21)

5. Second Study Results (00:04:56)

6. Research Takeaway (00:06:02)

7. Thoughts on leading questions (00:07:20)

8. FOLLOW-UP RESEARCH: LEADING QUESTIONS & MEMORY (00:09:22)

9. Follow-Up Study Research Methods (00:10:10)

10. Follow-Up Study Results (00:13:22)

11. Why didn't the effect replicate in the follow-up study? (00:16:04)

12. Was this whole episode a waste of your time??? (00:21:17)

13. What to look out for when you read research online (00:22:08)