... other?" estimated that the cars were going 30 mph. Simply using the word "smashed" rather than "contacted" seems to have increased people's estimates by 10 mph. Furthermore, when later asked "do you see any broken glass?" subjects in the "smashed" condition were more than twice as likely (about 33%) to say yes than those who had been in the "contacted" condition (about 14%). However, there was NO broken glass in the film subjects saw. Loftus's work indicates how influential post-event information can be on memories. In another study, Loftus, Burns, and Miller (1978) had subjects view a series of slides depicting an automobile accident. Later a test was given about what depicted, and in the test was either a question that referred to a yield sign or did not refer to a yield sign. In fact, there was a slide with a stop sign, but none with a yield sign. Later ...

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