In 1974, Loftus and Palmer conducted a classic study demonstrating how the language used to ask a question can influence eyewitness memory. In the study, college students watched a film of automobile accident and then were asked, About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?" Another group was asked the same question except the verb was changed to 'hit' instead of

'smashed into'. The smashed into group reported significantly higher estimates of speed than the "hit" group. Suppose a researcher repeats this study with a sample of today's college students and obtains the following results,

Estimated Speed

Smashed into

N=15

M=40.8

SS=510

Hit

N=15

M=34.0

SS=414