The experiment showed how our memory can be easily mislead even if we saw it with our own eyes. I believe Gould’s essay is indeed convincing when it comes to whether or not to doubt what people believe they remember is actually
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Diego Velazquez’ Las Meninas are both commentaries about different ways of life. Velazquez gives insight into the daily life of the Spanish monarchy, and Plato, on the other hand, enlightens about the various stages of life on the path to higher knowledge. Though they use different mediums, Plato and Velazquez use a similar framework to illustrate the ways people live. They both use a hierarchical structure to divide their works into pieces that make the works more straightforward for the reader or viewer to comprehend.
How would you react if you found out that you have been living a false reality? A lie? Would it provide you with new purpose? In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave", these characters are ignorant of the reality which they live in and have to make the decision whether to ignore or change the situation. In Frederick Douglass’ “Learning to Read and Write”, and Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read”, both these characters struggle with learning to read on their own.
She mentions that these “dangerous” memories are presented in legal cases and explains her part in two of which she was apart of. In the first case, the photos of Thomas Sohponow who was mistakenly identified as the murderer of a young woman during the identification process were arrayed simultaneously rather than sequentially giving witnesses an easier target. This practice is not reliable as it allows witnesses to easily be persuaded by their naïve “memories” of a person and unfortunately in his case resulted in four years in prison. The second case Michael Kliman who was an elementary school teacher was accused of molesting a 6th grade student based on “repressed memories”. After two decades the student who “recovered” her memories laid charges on Kliman, which makes the case questionable since it could be difficult to justify the validity of a “repressed memory”.
In a study done four years before the rape accord, they found that memories can become contagious and manipulated. If the subject picks a face that is close to the face they are trying to identify, they are more likely to perpetually select that person thereafter (Loftus & Green, 1980). When Jennifer was choosing a suspect from the lineup, she selected Ronald with confidence. Jennifer was later given affirmation by the detective, who told her she chose the same person from the mug shot. Thorndike’s Law of Effect, from almost a century earlier, shows positive feedback to a choice or decision can strengthen a memory in any animal (Thorndike, 1898).
Part of who we are is our memories of people, places and experiences. But when we lose our most important memories do we lose who we are? " But The Program steals our memories. They reset our emotions so that we're brand-new, never having been hurt or heartbroken. But who are we without our pasts?"
Sydney Caparaso Mrs. Sherry AP Psychology 27 August 2015 Witness for the Defense: Elizabeth Loftus Human memory may not, as many think, resemble a permanent tape of our lives ' events, replayable at a whim. Elizabeth Loftus discusses her theories of memory and accuracy in her book, Witness for the Defense. Loftus has testified as an expert witness in more than 150 court cases, several of which she sites, discussing the different ways a memory can be fallible.
The Oracle in Oedipus tells him his true prophecy, but he refuses to accept it, whereas Neo is given inaccurate information but he chooses to go with the Oracle, however, Oedipus still ended up facing the truth and Neo experiences the opposite of what the Oracle explained to him, demonstrating that no matter if one chooses to accept one’s outcome or not, their fate will come true. In Oedipus the King and The Matrix, both Oracles chose a different way of revealing the futures of the protagonists, but it didn’t differ the end result of their lives. The Oracle in Oedipus the King is very straightforward and tells Oedipus the truth, “Revealed at last, brother and father both/ to the children he embraces, to his mother/ son and husband both-he sowed
In conclusion, I believe that memories in general are real, and theorized about negative and positive
An individual’s life journey is linked to the process of enlightenment, which can be achieved when one realizes the world they have been dwelling in is an illusion and is not under their own control. The science-fiction movie The Matrix, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, and Golden-Globe award winning film The Truman Show all have the same underlying theme of escaping an artificial reality. “The Allegory of the Cave” is a dialogue that criticizes human perception. In the dialogue, prisoners draw a parallel between the dwellers in the cave who believe the shadows on the walls are real to humans who believe in perceptions based on empirical knowledge.
Here, we tested whether we could reduce the frequency of intrusions of the memory of a traumatic film that had already been consolidated.
The concept of time and memories is something that has truly baffled people for ages. Time is unwavering, but seems to go faster or slower, depending on the event, as Einstein’s theory of relativity explains. Our brains have a gargantuan amount of space, it seems, for memories to be stored, but so many of them eventually fade. When it comes to time and memories, humans are stumped on how it all truly works. That is why these concepts are so widely puzzled over and so commonly mentioned.
According to Halbwaches, studying memory is not a matter of reflecting on the properties of the subjective mind, rather memory is a matter of how minds work together in society, how their operations are structured by social arrangements: “It is in society that people normally acquire their memories. It is also in society that they recall, recognize, and localize their memories” (Halbwachs, 1992, p.38). Halbwaches argued that it is impossible for individuals to remember any coherent outside of their group contexts. Group memberships provide the materials for memory and prod the individual into recalling particular events and into forgetting others. (Lo, 2012)
In conclusion I found the research quite fascinating. I believe that any type of experience if positive or negative has a profound impact in your life and will always subconsciously influence your decision making. But, that our life experiences influence our thought process in repressed memory situations that we can’t predict is beneficial consciously or unconsciously take repressed memory to a whole another realm. Cited references Sifferlin, A. (2014, March).
To maintain a functional democracy the citizens must do their part in that society. I am a 13-year-old citizen of the United States of America. As a member of our society I have freedom and opportunities. Although I am only in 7th grade, I will have more capabilities and more requirements as I grow older. My role as an effective citizen in the American democratic society involves tasks I must, should, and could do.
