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Recommended: Cognitive theories of false memory
Case Overview The case of R. v Montana is a case that seeks to determine whether Hugo Montana is responsible for the death of Ms. Wise, Mr. Montana’s former girlfriend. The conviction of Mr. Montana hinges on the testimony of Mrs. Walters, a neighbour of the deceased who originally testified to last seeing Mr. Montana at Ms. Wise’s apartment on Thursday, January 8th, one day after the body of Ms. Wise was discovered. After undergoing an interview under hypnosis Ms. Wise changed her testimony now stating that she remembered seeing Mr. Montana at the deceased home on Wednesday, January 7th, the last day that Ms. Wise was alive. The issue present in this case is whether Mrs. Walter’s hypnotic interview influenced her testimony or if under the state of hypnosis Mrs. Walter managed to remember a vital
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.
“False Confessions: Causes, Consequences, and Implications for Reform”. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 17, No. 4 (2008) 249–53. Accessed Sept. 22, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20183294.
My analysis will exemplify the unreliability of human memory due to impairment by intense emotions, misinformation, and the natural biases people have. In court, when a witness testifies, they will explain the details and setting of the crime and often don’t realize that this information has been impaired due to their emotions when witnessing the event. Memories are formed and stored in the hippocampus, located in the temporal lobe deep within the human brain. Memory development and recollection is a complex process and can be impaired during times of intense
PAPER 1: FALSE CONFESSION ASSIGNMENT Legal issues involved in the interrogation of criminal suspects are the leading cause for wrongful conviction of innocent individuals based off of false confessions. The primary motive for police officials is to close a case with a written and verbal confession from a possible suspect. Confessions override evidence if the confession is convincing enough to the jurors. Most people assume that people would not confess to a crime they didn’t commit, but due to the harsh interrogation circumstances, psychological coercion and situation factors, these can influence an innocent individual to confess to a crime they didn’t commit.
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.
David Eagleman’s Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain is a book about the depths of the brain and how one’s conscience affects him daily. Through this work, Eagleman discusses how the mind drives people to act on certain behaviors. Eagleman further proves through practical facts that there is a significant association with the conscious and subconscious mind. Eagleman shows with scientific credibility, metaphors, and rhetorical questions that people should be able to trust their senses.
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
Forensic psychology focuses on legal matters such as mental state examinations of criminal defendants, child custody/family law, violence risk assessment, civil law, social science research, mediation/dispute resolution, etc… But in this case, we will be focusing on the matter of “false confessions”. This is seen mainly in interrogations between the interrogator and a suspect. It is when a suspect confesses to a crime and maybe even believes they committed the crime, even though they have not. A confession would be defined as an admission of guilt, whereas a false confession is the admission of guilt by an innocent.
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
Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 2(4), i-109. Greene, E., & Heilbrun, K. (2011). Wrightsmans psychology and the legal system (7th ed.). 20 Davis Drive Belmont, CA 94002 USA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Thompson-Cannino, J., Cotton, R., & Torneo, E. (2010).
After going through this process, four out of the five suspects ended up confessing to the crime, because they were led to believe they could go home if they admitted they did it. Lastly, coerced-internalized confessions typically occur if the suspect is “anxious, sleep-deprived, confused, and subjected to a highly suggestive interrogation that often includes the presentation of false evidence” (McGrath, ScienceDirect Topics). When a suspect turns to this type of confession, interrogators can spot a weakness present in the suspect and take advantage of it, leading the suspect to be under the impression that
Part One is very informational and contains the bulk of the book’s research. The information was presented in a thesis format; Loftus stated a claim and then supported her ideas with research and quotations from experts in the field of law and memory. Part One is helpful for psychologists, attorneys, and interested law people. The major principles concerning the errors in eyewitness testimony are supported by research and are accepted by psychologists (Kassin, Ellsworth, & Smith, 1989). Part One will contribute to the future of psychology by showcasing how the memory works and the different ways it is manipulated and changed: this will allow jurors and lawyers to become more wary when dealing with a traumatized
The human memory of complex and highly charged events is invariably incomplete. Police officers cannot be expected to encode and retain every one of the countless details that make up a use-of-force incident” (Simon). This will provide officers help to get the facts needed for the case. Therefore, there will be more hard evidence that can also be used in court. In addition, “Human memory is also susceptible to a
Furthermore, there can be several factors at play when a wrongful conviction occurs and each case is unique. Three of the more common and detrimental factors that will be explored in this essay are eyewitness error, the use of jailhouse informants and professional and institutional misconduct. Firstly, eyewitness testimony can be a major contributor to a conviction and is an important factor in wrongful conviction (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p. 227). Witness recall and, frankly, the human emory are not as reliable as previously thought. In fact there has been much research showing the problems with eyewitness testimony such as suggestive police interviewing, unconscious transference, and malleability of confidence (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p.227).