When eyewitnesses receive confirmatory feedback after giving their testimony, their confidence in their understanding and recall of the events is increased. This is a problem because jurors make decisions based on the confident of witnesses, which can be overinflated due to confirmatory feedback regardless of the actual validity.

Post-identification feedback effect

An interview procedure developed by cognitive psychologists based on memory retrieval research and understanding. Allows the witness to talk with little to no interruptions. Uses techniques to try to simulate putting the witness back to the scene of the crime in order to recreate the events.

Cognitive Interview

Information presented after someone witnesses an event that is misleading and can potentially change their memory of that event. It is often problematic in criminal cases when witnesses are given MPI.

Misleading Postevent Information (MPI)

People tend to pay attention to the weapon while a crime is being committed (a highly emotional situation). This can restrict a witness' awarenesses of the events leading up to and during a crime.

Weapons focus

Eye-witness testimonies are likely to be flawed or unreliable if the witness is exposed to an inaccurate account of the crime, particularly if this account comes from another person in a social context. While discussing the crime with co-witnesses may help to improve one’s overall memory of the event, inaccurate information encountered during such an interaction is likely to lead to memory distortions.

The impact of socially encountered misinformation on eye-witness testimonies 

Though human memory is fragile, legal and investigative processes often depend on eyewitness testimony. This reliance is risky, as suggestive police identification procedures can cause eyewitnesses to make incorrect identifications, and such false testimonies can result in wrongful convictions. According to the Innocence Project's analysis of the first 239 DNA exonerations, eyewitness misidentification was a contributing factor in approximately 75% of these cases, establishing it as the leading cause.

Eyewitness Misidentification

Suggestibility is a memory distortion error where individuals accept and incorporate misinformation from external sources into their personal recollections. This process, which can be triggered by leading questions from sources like a therapist or a police interviewer, can lead to the creation of false memories for events or details that were only suggested, not actually experienced.

Suggestibility

An analysis of the first 239 DNA exoneration cases by the Innocence Project identified several common causes of wrongful convictions. Eyewitness misidentification was the most frequent factor, contributing to about 75% of cases. Other significant causes included flawed forensic science (about 49%), false confessions (about 23%), and unreliable informant testimony (about 18%).

Common Causes of Wrongful Conviction in DNA Exoneration Cases

The Innocence Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted of crimes. A significant focus of its work is on cases where convictions were based on flawed eyewitness testimony.

The Innocence Project

The investigation into Elizabeth Smart's abduction illustrates the benefits of careful eyewitness management. The sole eyewitness, her nine-year-old sister Mary Katherine, was handled with caution by the FBI and police. To avoid implanting false memories or misleading her, they refrained from using standard procedures like police line-ups or pushing for a composite sketch. This preservation of her memory proved crucial when, months later, she recalled the abductor's voice from a prior encounter, leading to his identification and Elizabeth's safe return.

The Elizabeth Smart Case: An Example of Cautious Eyewitness Procedures

Within the legal system, judges can implement safeguards to address the potential unreliability of eyewitness testimony. These measures include instructing the jury about the possibility of misidentification and having the authority to suppress testimony that is deemed untrustworthy.

Judicial Safeguards for Eyewitness Testimony

From a psychological perspective, analyze why this eyewitness's testimony might be unreliable, despite their high level of confidence. Explain the underlying principles of memory that support your analysis.

Evaluating an Eyewitness Account

Despite the known fragility of human memory, the legal system, including police, prosecutors, and courts, often depends heavily on eyewitness testimony for criminal prosecutions. This reliance is problematic because memory is a reconstructive process, making eyewitness accounts susceptible to errors that can lead to faulty identifications and, ultimately, wrongful convictions.

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- Memory models
- Forgetting
- The stages of memory
- Levels of analysis
- Levels of Processing 
- Interference
- Chunking
- Recall
- Constructive nature of memory
- Primary vs. Secondary memories
- Types of information supporting memory
- Memory errors and impairment
- Source monitoring
- Eyewitness testimony
- Experience-dependent plasticity
- Desirable difficulties
- Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory

Focuses of Research on Memory

Human memory is not a perfect recording device; it is flexible and susceptible to numerous errors. These inaccuracies can lead to feelings of frustration or embarrassment and have significant real-world consequences, such as the demonstrated unreliability of eyewitness testimony in legal contexts.

Problems with Memory

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Forgetting is defined as the loss of information from long-term memory. This is a universal human experience, manifesting in everyday situations like forgetting a name, a birthday, or the location of personal items like car keys. Such memory failures, while common, can be a source of frustration and embarrassment, underscoring the fragile nature of human memory.

Forgetting

- 1) Chemical processes
- 2) Neurons activated
- 3) Brain storage
- 4) Storage activated
- 5) Memory
- 6) Output

Levels of output for memory

A central question within the realm of memory research is whether retaining information over short periods of time versus longer periods of time (whether minutes or weeks) is different. In 1890, William James distinguished “primary memory,” composed of past experiences that are active within consciousness, from “secondary memory,” composed of experiences that are not stored at the conscious level but can be recalled. James believed there to be limits to how much information is available in primary memory. Research has generally demonstrated that 7 ± 2 items can be stored at once in a person’s mind, but also that “recoding” items using past knowledge (for example, breaking longer strings into smaller recognizable pieces) can increase memory capacity.

Primary vs. Secondary Memories

While the implicit/explicit, semantic/episodic, and familiarity/recollection distinctions are founded partly on subjective experience, other researchers have instead explored what types of information promote learning retention.

Distinction Between Types of Information Supporting Memory

After being exposed to a stimuli, subjects are asked to report back what they observed.

Recall

Small units (i.e. words, actions) can be grouped together based on associations to form larger units that are easy to remember.

Chunking

Memory depends on the depth of processing information (how much meaning) that occurs. 

Levels of Processing theory

- The Modal Model
- Baddeley & Hitch's Working Memory Model

Memory models

Among many theories, there is consensus surrounding the understanding that medial temporal lobe damage only harms certain types of memory and learning, leaving repetition priming, classical conditioning, and reinforcement-learning largely untouched. Many models also agree about organization of the medial temporal lobe.

Consensus About the Medial Temporal Lobe Among Memory Theories

The process of trying to find the origins of a memory, belief, or knowledge. For example you may be trying to determine whether it was from a friend, a book, or news story.

Source monitoring

It is the mechanism through which the structure of the brain is "shaped" by environments to better perceive environments.

Experience-dependent plasticity 

- Brain damage
- Evolution (errors seen in the general population)

Causes of memory errors and impairment

A learning task that requires a considerable but desirable amount of effort, thereby improving long-term performance.

Examples:

- Interleaving Materials
- Spacing Studying
- Generation Effect
- Retrieval practice (testing)
- Varying Study Conditions

Desirable Difficulties

In neutral emotional circumstances, confidence in the memory and accuracy have a positive relationship. However, in an angry emotional state, the confidence-accuracy relationship becomes negative (as people become more confident, it is predicted that their accuracy will decrease).

The Confidence-accuracy relationship

Prospective memory is the term for the type of memory associated with forward-thinking, initiation of planned events, & retention. Retrospective memory is attributed to one's ability to recall experiences and their contexts (i.e. episodic) in hindsight. It most critically plays a role in remembering events or ideas from the past.

Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory

Memories are a reconstructive process, meaning they are not some recordings of past experiences, but a recreation influenced by the present. They comprised of what happened in events and prior knowledge, expectations, and experiences. This contrasts with what some may think about memories being solely representations of events.

Constructive Nature of Memory

- Proactive interference
- Retroactive interference

Types of Memory Interference

Eyewitness Testimony and its Unreliability

* Amnesia
* Dementia
* Alzheimer's Disease

Disorders of Memory

A false memory is a recollection of an event, or details of an event, that did not actually occur. This phenomenon highlights that human memory is not a perfect, video-like recording of the past but is instead a reconstructive process capable of creating memories for things that never happened.

False Memories

Misattribution is a type of memory error comprised of forgetting the correct source of information. For example, misattribution occurs as a person believes they had a certain conversation with their best friend, but in reality, they had that conversation with their parent.

Misattribution 

Misleading information that is presented to someone after witnessing event can change how they recall and explain that event. One common explanation is retroactive interference (new learning interfering with old memory/understanding)

Misinformation  Effect Paradigm

Memory errors, or failures in remembering, can be broadly classified into different categories. A prominent framework is Schacter's 'Seven Sins of Memory,' which divides errors into sins of omission (forgetting) and sins of commission (distortions). Other significant errors include those stemming from the misinformation effect, source misattribution, and pragmatic inferences.

Classification of Memory Errors

Elizabeth Loftus is a cognitive psychologist known for her extensive research on human memory. Her work has significantly contributed to the understanding of false memories and the concept of recovered memories, particularly in the context of childhood sexual abuse. Loftus is also credited with developing the misinformation effect paradigm.

Elizabeth Loftus

The concept of repressed memories, originating with Sigmund Freud, posits that memories of traumatic experiences can be unconsciously blocked from awareness. This idea has been a significant and controversial topic within psychology, with ongoing debate about its validity and the mechanisms through which memories might be recovered.

Repressed Memories

To counteract the natural fallibility and errors of the human memory system, various strategies can be employed. Common techniques include the use of mnemonic devices, rehearsal, self-referencing, and ensuring adequate sleep. These methods are also beneficial for enhancing learning and studying effectively.

Strategies to Combat Memory Failure

Analyze the following scenario and identify the specific memory error that leads the witness to recall seeing broken glass. Explain the psychological process responsible for this inaccurate memory.

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