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Repressed and false memories
Repressed and false memories
Repressed and false memories
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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.
However, reading the article titled ‘The Psychology of “Serial” it talks about “the fog of memory” and inconsistent accounts given or provided by the individuals that are involved in this case. This article proves that as time progresses the human brain becomes less reliable. As shown above, having false memories happen as a result of the brain being able to fabricate a scene or a story that never occurred. As a matter of fact, I have no recollection experiencing any form of false memory throughout my entire life and i haven’t been a victim of another person’s false memory. Nevertheless, it is important to be conscious of the potentials of the mind being filled with details that may not have actually occurred.
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.
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
Many characters have developed throughout The Marrow Thieves, but none have grown as much as Francis. The novel The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline is about coming of age and discovering one's Identity. The Marrow Thieves explores the topic of Coming of age and discovering one’s identity, by discussing Francis’ development throughout the novel. Francis is the protagonist and is a significant character in the novel. Judging by Francis’ actions and behaviour at the beginning of the novel, he is perceived as an Ignorant young man.
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.
This is a very interesting question. For me, I think I would rather have psychogenic retrograde amnesia than DID. First of all, patient with psychogenic retrograde amnesia usually are able to recover their memories within a month. Also, I think I would still be able to function normally and have control to my life if I have psychogenic retrograde amnesia than DID. I think it is more important to create new memories than to hold on to old ones or even worst, not able to control my life.
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
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
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.
Instead stress or other psychological factors trigger the amnesia (McKay & Kopelman, 2009). The characteristics include retrograde amnesia (RA): the inability to remember memories previously made. This tends to affect the few years before the onset of amnesia and spares more distant memories (Reed & Squire 1998). Another symptom is slight anterograde amnesia (AA): the inability to form new memories. AA is a minor impairment within PA (Kritchevsky, Chang & Squire, 2004).
Intrusive, traumatic memories are of real social concern, especially for people struggling with clinical posttraumatic distress. The ability to remember specific events is not a problem in itself. Rather, it is the involuntary intrusion of these traumatic thoughts that is a serious issue. Research shows that a task can interfere with the memory of an event shortly after it happened by affecting the consolidation process. However, it is still unknown whether interfering with the reconsolidation process can reduce the frequency of intrusive memories of traumatic events without affecting the memories in themselves.
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.
The research study focused on suppression of visual memories. Researchers first believed that majority of trauma had a visual aspect (University of Cambridge, 2014). That most people who have some type of traumatic experiences like military war or some detrimental close encounter visualizes traumatic experience. That these fortunate circumstances had been imbedded in their psyche and with something so traumatic they will never forget the