Implications of Memory Distortion
Implications of Memory Distortion
As an eyewitness to a crime, there is a lot of pressure to remember the events that have taken place accurately. According to the article "How to Improve Your Memory" on helpguide.org, Exercise and sleep help people remember things. The person needs to exercise and get enough sleep before they go and identify the accused criminal. To remember specific details the witness needs to write the information out and try and visualize what they seen. Sometimes drawing the persons face will help them keep the face fresh in their minds, this would need to be done before looking at mug shots or a line-up because that is where the false memories will be created.
If I were a part of a jury, I would not trust the eyewitness testimony. There are many factors I would need to look at in order to come to a conclusion. I would ask myself, has the witness ever saw the accused person before? They are more likely to be able to identify someone if they had met or seen the person before. According to the video on www.cbsnews.com, "The Bunny Effect", false memories were proven to be a definite possibility. Memory can be altered via suggestion. People can be led to remember their past in different ways, and they even can be led to remember entire events that never actually happened to them. When these sorts of distortions occur, people are sometimes confident in their distorted or false memories, and often go on to describe the pseudo memories in substantial detail. The process of interpretation occurs at the very formation of memory therefore introducing distortion from the beginning. Witnesses can distort their own memories without the help of examiners, police officers or lawyers. Rarely do we tell a story or recount events without a purpose. Every act of telling and retelling is tailored to a particular listener; we would not expect someone to listen to every detail of our morning commute, so we edit out extraneous material. The act of telling a
As an eyewitness to a crime, there is a lot of pressure to remember the events that have taken place accurately. According to the article "How to Improve Your Memory" on helpguide.org, Exercise and sleep help people remember things. The person needs to exercise and get enough sleep before they go and identify the accused criminal. To remember specific details the witness needs to write the information out and try and visualize what they seen. Sometimes drawing the persons face will help them keep the face fresh in their minds, this would need to be done before looking at mug shots or a line-up because that is where the false memories will be created.
If I were a part of a jury, I would not trust the eyewitness testimony. There are many factors I would need to look at in order to come to a conclusion. I would ask myself, has the witness ever saw the accused person before? They are more likely to be able to identify someone if they had met or seen the person before. According to the video on www.cbsnews.com, "The Bunny Effect", false memories were proven to be a definite possibility. Memory can be altered via suggestion. People can be led to remember their past in different ways, and they even can be led to remember entire events that never actually happened to them. When these sorts of distortions occur, people are sometimes confident in their distorted or false memories, and often go on to describe the pseudo memories in substantial detail. The process of interpretation occurs at the very formation of memory therefore introducing distortion from the beginning. Witnesses can distort their own memories without the help of examiners, police officers or lawyers. Rarely do we tell a story or recount events without a purpose. Every act of telling and retelling is tailored to a particular listener; we would not expect someone to listen to every detail of our morning commute, so we edit out extraneous material. The act of telling a
References: Melinda Smith and Lawrence Robinson (02/2012). How to Improve Your Memory. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.helpguide.org/life/improving_memory.htm. [Last Accessed 04/19/2012]. CBS News (03/08/2009). The Bunny Effect. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4852620n&tag=segementExtraScroller;housing. [Last Accessed 04/19/2012].