Memory- A ToK Essay

The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: Many children and people were harm due to false memory accusations. In the case, the Social Worker, Kee MacFarlene her style of interviewing the children was wrong and misleading to the witnesses. A social worker is conducting an interview, must be done in an ethical manner and style. Their goal is to have the witness give the correct and honest answers to the questions asked. A valuable lesson for a Social worker when they are speaking with a client is not to contaminate their client’ memory is to ask questions that are not suggestive, leading, and misleading questions. After viewing the different Elizabeth Loftus clips, I realize that your memory can be easily manipulated, by making you believe something

Many false-convictions have occurred because of a witness believing their memory as correct, when in actuality the memory had been altered. The Innocence Project has had numerous cases in which victims pick out a defendant from a line-up believing they are the real perpetrator, however, years later DNA evidence proved the man was innocence. While victims should be treated with respect, and have their voices heard, it is vital to take the findings in account to make sure the judicial process is as fair as possible, for both the accused and the victims. In a Ted Talk Loftus says memories are much like Wikipedia pages, we can go into them and edit, yet so can others. As Loftus’s research gave other scholars the ground work establishing memory is not as infallible as original thought, scholars should do more research for further

The first study had resulted in the opposite of what l would assume would only support the theory of false memories being instilled into subjects. In addition, I also noticed how the wording of certain questions, may have had an influence on whether or not subjects recalled events that never happened. It was only when participants were being told to recall certain events, rather than being asked, that they were allowed room to expand their imagination, thus going as far as to vividly describe an event that never occurred. The second study divided the theory of the fabrication of memories, and suggested that some people may be immune to believing false memories. What l found to be interesting about the second study, was that researchers divided their subjects into two groups, with one of their groups being individuals with a highly superior autobiographical memory - yet, investigators were still able to

The need for understanding the phenomenon of repressed memories is also very important from a legal standpoint. In recent years there has been numerous cases of people suing their parents or other authority figures for abuse that has been recalled many years after the abuse was said to have occurred. The rulings in these cases have often been controversial considering there is often not enough concrete or collaborative evidence to prove the accused to be guilty or innocent. The judge and jury are often forced to make a ruling that relies heavily on the testimonial of the accuser. This is very contentious considering there is not an accurate and reliable test to determine the validity of the accuser.

The Retrieval-induced Forgetting in an Eyewitness Paradigm article is based on an experiment done to test retrieval- induced forgetting. Even though research was done on this topic before, the authors took it one step forward to either prove or deny the theory of retrieval-induced forgetting. They wanted to see if repeated questioning would impact a witnesses’ ability to recall certain events or even specific details. This was done by showing subjects different slides of the aftermath of theft. They were then asked to recall selected details of what they saw several different times. Previous experiments have proven that there are both positive and negative effects to addressing

Her possibly most infamous study was her Lost in the Mall study where she attempted to implant a false memory in a young child. Loftus told participants 4 stories, including a false one of the child being lost in a mall at a young age for an extended period of time, of their own childhood that supposedly were all from members of the family. One of the 4 stories was false and the participant was asked to identify the false memory. 25% of participants remembered no such event happened. Many other participants were able to provide evidence for the false events. It was concluded that if false memories can be laid down this way, witnesses who are allowed the chance to talk to each other after an event might alter the recall of other witnesses. Again indicating that eyewitness testimony is not

This study, and many before it, relied on three main conditions that will result in false memory. First of all, the participants must believe that the suggested memory

If we can create false memories for other people and ourselves, this could cause potential problems in therapy sessions, in which the therapist and patient think they are bringing to light a painful situation that happened in the past but it could actually be a false memory. False memories could also have a potential impact on eyewitness accounts. Dale, Loftus, and Rathbun (1978) conducted an experiment to hypothesis that witnesses would give false information when asked questions. In one experiment they had a person stand before the class of students and proceeded to talk to the students. The person was wearing a hat but while talking to the students never once held his hat or took it off. After this person left the class, the teacher asked the students to recall if the person’s left or right hand was holding the hat. Out of the 20 children questioned, 17 students said the teacher held it in his right hand, 7 in the left, and of all these children only 3 said he was wearing it the whole time. This experiment could suggest that there is only a small number of people that are reliable sources and that children could very easily be susceptible of false memories more so than adults. Through research and further testing, we may find better ways for eye witness accounts, sexual abuse cases, and help therapists find better ways to help their patients recall traumatic

Loftus and Palmer support the reconstructive memory hypothesis. They believe that information gathered at the time of an icident is

One such case depicts this scenario, which is the Friedmans case. In the documentary, Capturing the Friedmans, former computer students who had once attended Arnold’s classes were interviewed about the situation. When asked whether they had recalled anything inappropriate going on in that class, some admitted while others denied. This just goes to show that using memories is inaccurate and repression are sometimes used to deny these accusations. However, even if these people were not using repression, they may be experiencing amnesia due to the traumatic occurrences of these horrendous events that happened during their childhood. Nonetheless, whether the former computer students did lie or truthfully forgot about it, these memories should still not be used to convict people wrongfully without hardcore evidence.

Memory is a reconstructive process, where someone recall information from the past that will be their autobiography and it can be affected by many different factors, and according to the first study provided below, all memories are wrong to some extent. But what is important for memories is whether we can differentiate between accurate and inaccurate ones. The first study has tested two different approaches on subjects, and neither were helpful in determining the validity of a memory. On the other hand, in the fourth study it was concluded that it is possible to assess whether a particular eyewitness is true or false based on the approach the witness used to recall the information. Also, it was found in the third research that subjects were

Memories can be rebuilt from numerous points of supply and they can alter after display of deceiving information. In addition, people occasionally remember situations that never took place. These are called false memories. Inaccuracies in a memory can have a severe aftermath, for instance eyewitness misidentification. Previous studies have discovered that false memories can emerge from different modes. The misinformation procedure is a prevalent practice of studying false memories in the laboratory. Participants in this procedure often affiliate the deceptive information that wasn’t in the original data through stimuli and absorb it into their memory. There’s also a process of making false memories in a lab with Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm.

It is very important to used our memories to get new information so that our memories can function. Many things that have to do with life can cause our memories to changed and to created anew different memory in our mine. For instance, our imagination and the leading questions or different reminiscences of others people. Sometime we can't trust our memories, nevertheless they can be helpful to lead to a questions about the illegal convictions that are victims or witnesses. Our memories must be used to help the lawful system to plot the danger. According to the author, Elizabeth Loftus she explained that memories are valuable, they give us personality also created a shared past that collects us with family and friends. Although, memories are

Many people would swear that they are able to remember an event that happened to them with complete accuracy. However, this may not always be the case. Over time, it is not uncommon for people’s memories to fade and deteriorate, but what many don’t realize is that it’s possible for memories to actually transform themselves or be created entirely. With the possibility of memories being changed or fabricated by the human mind, can memory really be trusted?

Exploring Psychology explains how memory is reconstructive and able to reproduce (Myers, 309). This means that not only do we forget the actual facts of an event, but we alter the memories and began to believe them. This can be due to many factors that affect memory storage. There may be a misinformation effect where information that is heard may alter one’s memory of a particular experience. This is similar to source amnesia where a false memory is gathered from something we heard, read, or even imagined. Juries are undeniably aware of the fallibility of eyewitness testimony. Although there are multiple factors altering memory, improving memory is possible through practices such as rehearsing repeatedly the memories, activating retrieval cues,