False Memories

LEAH HUFF KELSEY NUTTALL LAURA WALLACE

False Memories
False memories

Elizabeth Loftus Born in 1944 Mother drowning in pool False memories Expert on eyewitness testimony

Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction 1974 Why Is this Important?

Well documented that most people are markedly

inaccurate in reporting such numerical details such as time, speed & distance Are memories impacted by phrasing?

Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction

Two experiments 1st: 45 participants, various group sizes 2nd: 150 participants, various group sizes Independent variable: verb used; what phrasing does

to perception Dependent variable(1st exp.): speed given by participants Dependent variable (2nd exp.): whether they believed they saw glass or not

Data
Data from 1 & 2 experiments

Interpretation
Question can influence memory of incident Verb such as smashed may influence what subject sees (i.e.: glass on ground) Purposed that two kinds of information go into ones memory for some complex occurrence 1. First information is gleaned during the perception of the original event 2. Second is external information supplied after the fact. 3. Overtime information from the two sources may be fully integrated.

Why is this important? Contd.

Eye witnesses

Further studies of false memories Loftus, Ketchum (1994), mall study implanted false studies
Further studies of false allegations Line-ups Innocent believe they are guilty Therapists/over-zealous law enforcement officers

implanting memories

McAuliff, B. D., & Bornstein, B. H. (2012). Beliefs and expectancies in legal decision making: An introduction to the special issue.

Introduction
False confessions 3 different types

Voluntary 2. Coerced-compliant 3. Coerced-internalized

1.

The Process I have not committed this crime I dont know if I did this and finally I must have done it.

Interrogation Techniques & Memory Distrust

50 undergraduate students (36 women)

Aged 18-24 (mean age was 20.04)

Dependent variable: questionnaires & memory

distrust Independent variable: interrogation styles (subjective cognitive functioning, attribution style & cognitive failures questionnaires)

Procedure
Took place in small laboratory room (designed to look like an

interrogation room) Asked to organize 2 files of forensic cases (deliberately mixed up) Told they were looking at how quickely anx accurately they could complete the task Paper with upcoming exam was accidentenly left on the table, and the expeirmenter left the room. They are given a piece of paper from this moment on, you are suspected of exam fraud imagine you are seated in an interrogation room. You will be given descriptions of a couple of situations that I would like to ask you to put real effort in imagining those situations. You are suspected of looking at the exam of the current cirriculm module. This is a vuilation according to the rules and regulations of the act on higher education and research. Try to imagine the given situations as clearly as possible before answering the questions.

Procedures continued..
After reading instructions partipcants are confronted

with 5 different interrogation situations. They also ompleted several questionarries that served as fillers. The interrogation situations and questionarries were counterbalanced across particiapnts.

Instruments
Interrogation looked at false technical evidence

False eyewitness testimony

Minimizing the offense Maximizing the offense Suggested memory problems These were followed by two questions

To what extent would you distrust your memory right now? 2. To what extent would you be willing to confess that you have inspected the exam paper?
1.

The Questionnaires
The Squire Subjective memory questionarrie

Cognitive Failures Questionarrie

The Attribution Style Questionnaire

Results The correlational pattern is in the expected direction. That is, memory confidence (SSMQ) correlated significantly with cognitive failures (CFQ). Furthermore, internal attribution (ASQ) was related to lower levels of subjective confidence in ones own memory functioning (SSMQ).

Results
Show that memory distrust is not a static trait-like

phenomenon. Under the influence of interrogation techniques, people may vary in their tendency to distrust their memory. Found that suggesting memory problems increases peoples tendency to distrust their memory. Presenting false evidence (I.e. camera footage), on the other hand, resulted in the strongest tendency to falsely confess. Interrogation techniques do not have a uniform effect on memory distrust and false confession Results indicate that suggesting memory problems results in the highest tendency to distrust ones own memory.

Limitations
Due to ethical constraints, this experiment was

designed as a thought experiment. There was no real pressure exerted during the experiment (not representative of a real interrogation setting). Participants were all undergraduate students.

Other studies have shown that undergraduates do not differ from prison inmates and people in the general community with regard to false confessions. Can therefore be generalized to the general public.

Learned from experiment

Doesnt matter age/background, can still get memory

distrust ADHD more susceptible to conditions Distrust in general People w/memory distrust, prone to falsely confess Suggestion of memory problems, increase in distrust memories Presentation of false evidence (camera footage), strongest tendency to falsely confess Interrogations dont have uniform effect on memory distrust

Not with interrogation techniques

Theory
Horrendous events occur, pushed out of memory

(repressed) Way to escape painful memories Repressed memories, toxic & produced symptoms, brought into light of consciousness Evidence: theory is weak than believed Children in concentration-camps (survivors) inability to forget, reliving the traumas (not inability to remember) Sample of women sexually abused in childhood, most remembered the abuse all too early