In the book Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, they talk about the idea that memory is reconstructive. It means, memories can be affected by things that are currently happening. The idea of source confusion, the misattribution of information. The problem comes in criminal trials, relationships, and politics.…
Jeffrey Herf’s book Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys studies the distinct ways in which post-World War II German national political leaders in both the East and West were influenced by both their pre-war beliefs and post-war “political interests in domestic and international politics”. Herf specifically addresses four questions he wishes to find an answer to: why did German politicians place such prominence on to Nazi crimes in mainstream political rhetoric after 1945; why did the “public memory” of the Holocaust differ so much between the GDR and FRG; how did each side “approach the issues of memory and justice”; and finally, “how did the Cold War affect discussion of the Jewish catastrophe in both Germanys? (p.2).” It is…
In 1976, an innocent man named Randall Adams was convicted and imprisoned for the murder of officer Robert Wood, after the presumed killer David Harris gave a false statement against him. This case inspired the documentary, “Thin Blue Line” and led to widespread controversy about the investigation. The documentary features several interviews of individuals involved in the case and these interviews highlight many aspects of how human memory works. The interviews reflected different ways that errors in memory can occur, such as spreading activation’s role in source confusion and false memories, as well as the limitations of visual memory. Furthermore, the documentary also made apparent how strongly biases and opinions can shape our attitudes about experiences.…
To begin, I do not believe that repressed memories should be allowed for use in court to prosecute the alleged abuser. After reading the article by Elizabeth Loftus, I came to this conclusion because memories have the ability to be manipulated and abused, which studies and analysis's have proven. For example, some professionals contain the ability to provide false memories in which the manipulated person never experienced. The court system could be working with material that has no substantial value what so ever for the prosecution of the abuser. Therefore, I strongly believe the gathered resources to prosecute someone should be accountable or proven information instead of just memories.…
Memories can be distorted over time. Every time we recall a memory, it is subject to change(Dobrin, 2013). Research conducted by Schiller at NYU suggests, “If mitigating information about a traumatic or unhappy event is introduced within a narrow window of opportunity after its recall—during the few hours it takes for the brain to rebuild the memory in the biological brick and mortar of molecules—the emotional experience of the memory can essentially be rewritten. ”(Hall, 2013). Findings such as this call into question the credibility of our memories and show just how malleable they…
Although seen as controversial, Elizabeth Loftus is a strong leader in psychology, specifically in the field of memory. Her discoveries and experiments with false memories and eyewitness testimony have made her very prominent. She has written about her research on faulty memories, explaining the impact it can have on justice and society, as well as individuals. Loftus is most interested in the implications false memories have in the justice system.…
They mention that altering the individual’s beliefs could occur through false information or fabricated evidence (Wade, 2009). It allows the cultivation of false memories about certain events, whether personal or public (Wade, 2009). In this document they concluded that people will sometimes tend to make false accusations or eyewitness testimonies against another person, when they know the result of the accused person is to be punished (Wade, 2009). People sometimes tend to testify against things they never…
Loftus is one of the leading researchers in memory reconstruction and eyewitness inaccuracy. Memory reconstruction can be critical during the testimony of an eyewitness. Throughout Loftus's experiments she asked direct and false presupposition, must be true for the question to make sense, questions. New false information incorporated into a question may manipulate one into thinking an event occurred when it did not. For example, in experiment 3, participants watched a short film of a car accident involving a white sports car then completed a questionnaire.…
Furthermore, Loftus observes that a simple insinuation that an individual was witnessed in a particular act can cause the individual to admit to the act when in fact they are guiltless. The article emphasizes that “false memories” can be constructed when there is anxiety caused by demands to recall an event, coercion to imagine an event when difficulty in transporting the recollection to conscious awareness is experienced, and direction to discount a recalled event as being true or false. Conversely, the author shows this compilation of data does not negate or find every recollection inspired by promptings, fictitious. The article conveys that verification of events and recollections is imperative. Loftus confirms that investigation into the vulnerability and immunity of individuals regarding implanted memories needs to continue.…
In the Radiolab podcast “Outside Westgate” and the article “Why Our Memory Fails Us” by Christopher F. Chabris and Daniel J. Simons, the topic of memories are discussed in both of the works. Unreliable memories can affect our court system and the people involved in the trials. In our society, criminals are tried in court more often than not and the courts require eyewitness testimony from people at to scene of the crime to help convict the person being tried. However, most trials don’t happen immediately after the crime and it could take up to a year or even longer.…
The human brain is able to instinctively collect and recall information in a very particular way, however, some troubles seem to lie in how well the brain mismanages this information. In “Your Brain Lies to You,” Authors Dr. Samuel Wang and Dr. Sandra Aamodt, both established neuroscientists, use their knowledge to explain the specific ways the human brain stores memories and data. However, they also present their conclusion on how the brain can also mislead us to blindly believe information that could potentially hold no merit, without a second thought or inference. Wang and Aamodt claim that this is a result of source amnesia, a phenomenon where the human brain will subconsciously disconnect facts from their original source, making the credibility…
Her memories were so vivid and detailed it led to the arrest of her father for the murder of a young child (Loftus, 1993). Regarding child sexual abuse, the FIA test had shown that those who had spontaneous memory recovery, had no evidence of false recall (Geraerts, 2009). A second experiment had resulted in the evidence that memories recalled within therapy were corroborated by evidence (Gerarets, 2007). Advisories to repressed memories believe that those who experience this should be shocked by what information has come to light. However, outside factors associated with the abuse may not be a surprise (Gerarets, 2007).…
After watching How reliable is your memory? by Elizabeth Loftus, I believe that to a great extent, memory is not a reliable source of knowledge because it can be distorted, contaminated, and even falsely imagined. Memory decay, distorted memory, hindsight bias, consistency bias, the availability heuristic bias and suggestibility- are all problems that beset our reliance on memory. “I was there. I saw it.”…
Our experiment examined how modality and word type could affect false recall in a word list paradigm. Manipulating modality (auditory and visual presentation) and word type (concrete and abstract) has never been studied in relation to false recall. We predicted that the word lists that were presented aurally and/or contained concrete terms would show higher rates of false recall for the critical lure words. Approximately, 24 undergraduate students took part in the study. The participants were presented with 12 word lists that were associated with 6 concrete lures, and 6 abstract lures.…
Memories of the initial event can be effected by events and suggestions that occurred afterwards also known as post event misinformation effect (Gerry et al, 2005). The particular way in which a question was asked, the type of feedback given, social pressure to do the right thing, and the time delay between the event and the testimony can all affect accurate information (Matlin, 2012). The relationship between eyewitness memory and recall is minimal. A person may appear confident in their memories, but actual recall of events is lacking.…