DOJ-OGR-00013973.pdf

Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 761 Filed 08/10/22 Page 114 of 246 2409 LCGVMAX3 Loftus - direct to them and adopted it as their own memory. And that study was published in 1978. Q. Have you conducted any studies that have to do with language and how language might affect memory? A. Yes. An example of that would be -- again, this is also a fairly widely cited study. We showed people a simulated accident. Afterwards, we asked people about the speed of the vehicles involved in the accident. But different witnesses are questioned in different ways. So some witnesses are asked a question like, How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? And others are asked, How fast were the cars going when they hit each other? And we found that people estimated the speed as greater if you used the word "smashed" than if you used the word "hit." Also we had found that if we use the smash word, this leading kind of biased word, it affected what other things that people remembered. 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. So that's an example of what you're asking about, the connection between language and memory. Q. In the course of your research and experience, are you aware of any experiments that have actually measured emotion and its impact on memory? SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 DOJ-OGR-00013973