Can a question change what someone remembers?

A question can ask for a memory while also suggesting what might have happened. Research on eyewitness reports separates what someone originally saw from information introduced afterward, making wording part of the evidence problem.

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

How can leading wording affect a later report?
What separates a laboratory finding from judging one real witness?

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OpenStax, Rice UniversityPsychology 2e, 8.3: Problems with Memory
OpenStax introduces suggestibility, reconstruction, and other ways memory reports can change.
Elizabeth F. Loftus and John C. Palmer; Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior; original paper hosted in a Stanford courseReconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction Between Language and Memory
Loftus and Palmer’s 1974 experiments compare question wording with estimates and later reports about a filmed collision.

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Psychology

Can an option nobody wants change what people choose?

Choosing between two offers can feel different when a third appears beside them. A decoy is less attractive than one option on the relevant features, but its presence does not reliably change every decision.

5–7 min

Can an option nobody wants change what people choose?

Psychology5–7 minChoosing between two offers can feel different when a third appears beside them. A decoy is less attractive than one option on the relevant features, but its presence does not reliably change every decision.

Psychology

How can you miss something that is right in front of you?

Looking at a scene does not mean noticing everything in it. When attention is occupied by one task, something plainly visible can go unreported, a pattern called inattentional blindness.

3–5 min

How can you miss something that is right in front of you?

Psychology3–5 minLooking at a scene does not mean noticing everything in it. When attention is occupied by one task, something plainly visible can go unreported, a pattern called inattentional blindness.

Psychology

Why is it hard to name the ink color of the wrong color word?

A word can be easy to read and awkward to ignore. When its meaning conflicts with its ink color, the two tasks interfere, making a simple color-naming exercise surprisingly demanding.

4–5 min

Why is it hard to name the ink color of the wrong color word?

Psychology4–5 minA word can be easy to read and awkward to ignore. When its meaning conflicts with its ink color, the two tasks interfere, making a simple color-naming exercise surprisingly demanding.

Questions you could explore

Start reading

Ready to try your ideas aloud?

Keep following your curiosity

Can an option nobody wants change what people choose?

How can you miss something that is right in front of you?

Why is it hard to name the ink color of the wrong color word?