In Loftus and Palmer's study, which word led participants to falsely recall seeing broken glass?

In Loftus and Palmer's study, the word "smashed" is particularly significant because it was associated with the most intense descriptions of the car accident portrayed in their experiment. The researchers investigated how different verbs used in questioning could influence participants' memories of an event. When participants were asked with the verb "smashed," they were more likely to report seeing broken glass, even though there was none present in the original film of the crash.

The emotional intensity and connotation of the word "smashed" likely heightened participants' perceptions of the severity of the accident, leading to the misinformation effect. This illustrates how language can shape memory recall, supporting the notion that memory is not a perfect snapshot of an event but can be altered by external factors, such as the wording of questions. This is a crucial insight in cognitive psychology that emphasizes the malleability of human memory.