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Extraction Summary
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People
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Organizations
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Locations
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Events
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Relationships
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Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Legal document
File Size:
611 KB
Summary
This document is a page from a court transcript filed on August 10, 2022, detailing the testimony of a witness named Loftus. Loftus describes a widely-cited 1978 study on the malleability of memory, explaining how the use of different verbs ('smashed' versus 'hit') when questioning witnesses about a simulated car accident altered their estimation of speed and even caused them to falsely remember details like broken glass.
People (1)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Loftus | Witness |
Mentioned in the header ('Loftus - direct') and is the individual providing answers ('A.') in the testimony.
|
Organizations (1)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. | Company |
Listed at the bottom of the page as the court reporting agency.
|
Timeline (2 events)
Relationships (1)
The document is a transcript of a question (Q.) and answer (A.) session between an interrogator and the witness, Loftus, during a legal proceeding.
Key Quotes (2)
"And we found that people estimated the speed as greater if you used the word "smashed" than if you used the word "hit.""Source
— Loftus
(Explaining the primary finding of a study on how leading questions and specific word choice can alter a witness's memory of an event.)
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Quote #1
"Our witnesses were more likely to remember, for example, broken glass that didn't exist if we had used that word smashed in questioning them."Source
— Loftus
(Detailing a secondary finding of the study, showing that a biased word could lead witnesses to create false memories.)
DOJ-OGR-00016597.jpg
Quote #2
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (1,505 characters)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 761 Filed 08/10/22 Page 114 of 246
LCGVMAX3
Loftus - direct
LCGVMAX3
Loftus - direct
1 to them and adopted it as their own memory. And that study was
2 published in 1978.
3 Q. Have you conducted any studies that have to do with
4 language and how language might affect memory?
5 A. Yes. An example of that would be -- again, this is also a
6 fairly widely cited study.
7 We showed people a simulated accident. Afterwards, we
8 asked people about the speed of the vehicles involved in the
9 accident. But different witnesses are questioned in different
10 ways. So some witnesses are asked a question like, How fast
11 were the cars going when they smashed into each other? And
12 others are asked, How fast were the cars going when they hit
13 each other?
14 And we found that people estimated the speed as
15 greater if you used the word "smashed" than if you used the
16 word "hit." Also we had found that if we use the smash word,
17 this leading kind of biased word, it affected what other things
18 that people remembered. Our witnesses were more likely to
19 remember, for example, broken glass that didn't exist if we had
20 used that word smashed in questioning them.
21 So that's an example of what you're asking about, the
22 connection between language and memory.
23 Q. In the course of your research and experience, are you
24 aware of any experiments that have actually measured emotion
25 and its impact on memory?
2 published in 1978.
3 Q. Have you conducted any studies that have to do with
4 language and how language might affect memory?
5 A. Yes. An example of that would be -- again, this is also a
6 fairly widely cited study.
7 We showed people a simulated accident. Afterwards, we
8 asked people about the speed of the vehicles involved in the
9 accident. But different witnesses are questioned in different
10 ways. So some witnesses are asked a question like, How fast
11 were the cars going when they smashed into each other? And
12 others are asked, How fast were the cars going when they hit
13 each other?
14 And we found that people estimated the speed as
15 greater if you used the word "smashed" than if you used the
16 word "hit." Also we had found that if we use the smash word,
17 this leading kind of biased word, it affected what other things
18 that people remembered. Our witnesses were more likely to
19 remember, for example, broken glass that didn't exist if we had
20 used that word smashed in questioning them.
21 So that's an example of what you're asking about, the
22 connection between language and memory.
23 Q. In the course of your research and experience, are you
24 aware of any experiments that have actually measured emotion
25 and its impact on memory?
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
(212) 805-0300
(212) 805-0300
DOJ-OGR-00016597
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