The topic I found the most interesting from this course was the topic of memory. Specifically what interested me was the amount of information that can be processed in each type of memory and remembering memories. Short term memory and working memory both have a limited capacity, while long term memory is limitless. Thinking about the vastness of all the knowledge I have ever learned in my life is astonishing. The limited amount of working memory makes sense because there is no way we could possibly comprehend everything that is happening around us at once. We pick and choose what we focus on. This specified focus often leads to unintentional blindness and deafness.
It is also interesting to me that some memories we still hold in our brains exist, but we can’t always retrieve them, at least not without retrieval cues. Each time a memory is pulled out of long term memory and brought into working memory, it is subject to alterations, and change. This pertains to my life because after going through events with friends and family, they sometimes have a different story about what
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Without realizing it, other factors are influencing our memories each time it is brought up. Similar to learning about hypnosis to try and retrieve repressed memories, a hypnotist can accidentally bias a person to thinking something happened when it really didn’t just by the way a question is asked. When retrieving memories over time, many times, different factors can influence our perception of the event. This interests me because we can never be 100% positive of our memories, or what has occurred in our lives. We are incredibly vulnerable to manipulation whether it be purposeful or not. I believe this is the most important subtopic about memory that many people should know. Every year many people are convicted of crimes they didn't commit due to inaccurate identifications by victims or
If the victim could have correctly remembered his attacker, the right person would have been convicted instead of the wrong
Research provided by the Innocence Project shows that Hundreds of people are accused of crimes they have never committed just because of eyewitness testimony and factors which distorted memory. Can we even trust our memory after knowing so many innocent people have been convicted? Coming back to the question: How does crime affect memory? Looking at the studies of Ronald Cotton and Bennett Barbour, they tell us that crime distorts the memory of a victim. In both cases, the victim identified the wrong person as their assailant.
In reality the memory can be affected by numerous outside stimuli and previous beliefs. Due to television, one of the most well know detective tactics in the police arsenal is forensic
Followed by the lack of corroboration, which is an important aspect in courtrooms, “corroboration will add credibility to the memory and lack of it may raise doubts about the allegations.” Loftus considers that relying on memory is not a valid way of justice; the legal system needs to improve when eyewitness testimonials are used in the courts. Loftus confides as a psychologist that psychological science has taught them about human memory and that the research has revealed the limits of human memory. Adding on, these research findings need to be incorporated in procedures to improve the court system. She hopes readers will acknowledge the fact that the use of memories in a trial can be problematic since they are “dangerous” and can lead to false
Memories can be misinterpreted easily especially with the passage of time. This is why during interrogations, eyewitnesses’ can feel pressured and choose the wrong suspect such as the Tillman case. Tillman was accused of kidnapping and raping a woman in 1988. DNA analysis of the semen showed that it had come from someone else and he was wrongfully imprisoned for eighteen years (Duke
It is unlikely that social consequences of false memories can be avoided. Elizabeth Loftus was intrigued to study false memories, and is perhaps personally responsible for subsequent developments throughout the history of false memories. Some of this history addresses various theories aimed at isolating how or why false memories occur. These include Source Monitoring Framework, Activation Monitoring Theory, Fuzzy Trace Theory, and strategies for persuasion which can lead to the development of false memory. Such persuasion leads to the present discussion concerning how persuasion in the judicial system has created false confessions and wrongful eyewitness testimonies, due to the Misinformation Effect.
Most people have many core memories that didn’t even happen to them but instead happened on a TV show or movie they watched. This leads to many awkward situations when people talk about their life stories and people seem to remember that same event on a TV show they had watched. This remembrance of an event that never happened could be due to many factors. A study performed by Northwestern University concluded that “Every time you remember an event from the past, your brain networks change in ways that can alter the later recall of the event. Thus, the next time you remember it, you might recall not the original event but what you remembered the previous time” ( Paul ).
In an article it even states, “that some people report false memories, confusing events that they remember with those they have merely been told about or imagined.” (Eacott). I’ve had this happen to me where I’ve had an extremely realistic dream when I was younger and then when I say something to my parents they tell me that it never really happened. I just feel like memories can be different depending who you are and your perspective on
There are many factors that contribute to a wrongful conviction. Eyewitness misidentification is the greatest cause. The mind is not a tape recorder; it does not record events exactly as it’s seen. Sometimes the witness or victim would choose the wrong person at photo arrays and lineups. The memory of a witness in a crime scene is like any other evidence it must be preserved carefully.
Are You Sure? Why have more than two-thousand people exonerated for crimes they didn’t commit? Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the U.S. Memory can be influenced by anxiety, stress, reconstructive memory and other factors possibly affecting the testimony of the eyewitness and in turn, misleading the jury. I think that when subjects witness a crime they will struggle to remember important details of the event, and their recollection could be easily altered. This is because the reconstructive memory can be influenced by factors such as stress, anxiety, and verbal cues.
This week’s topic was very interesting to learn about how important eyewitnesses can be when a crime and accidents do occur. In the case that was presented in the 60-minute segment of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson is exactly how legal system can fail us when it comes to the eyewitnesses’ identification testimony and how a person’s perception and memory can be altered. The aspect of psychology and law research from this week’s course material is most relevant to the topic of perception and memory. The memory has different stages the first is encoding the process of entering perception into memory.
To start with the basis of understanding the memory, one must know that memories are stored in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. In a recent fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) study over the past decade, researchers found that the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex have decreased in activity. The memory is a constructive surface and not so much reproductive. It can be distorted by being influenced by bias, association, imagination and peer pressure. As one goes to recall an event, the brain will now associate that memory with what is happening around them at the time of the recall.
This clearly sows that the memory is an active process and is expected to alter an opinion based on understanding society (Simple Psychology, 2014) . Eyewitness testimony is unethical as the evidence that is supplied can be provided by someone with stress or anxiety issues this can assist by distraught the image of the suspect. Wrongfully sending an innocent individual to prison. Bloods worth’s case displays it is unethical as there was no psychical evidence nor appearance matched that supported Bloodsworth was responsible for the murder and rape of the victim. Three eyewitnesses were able to identify the perpetrator out of the five and this was based from evidence that he was spotted with the young girl hours earlier before the crime was
The principle in law that one is innocent until proven guilty has created much discourse. There are those who feel that the moment that one is arrested, there is reasonable belief that they committed the crime. However, there are those who feel that just as the principle states, one is, and should be taken as a victim and the outcome could be either way: guilty or not guilty. In fact, this argument is supported by the many cases of malicious prosecutions and mistaken identities.
This brings back to the idea that memories aren’t reliable but in fact they have been constructed according to our beliefs and stereotypes. This can also be seen in Allport and Postman’s study where participants were asked to recall details of a picture. The participants stated that the black man was the person who was holding the razor when in reality it was the white man. This demonstrated that our memories are actively being