1. Reliability of Memory
Ms. Carmelitano

2. Listen to the story Just sit quietly, and listen to the story
Do not write anything down
Do not talk to anyone around you

3. Reliability of Memory
The legal system uses eye-witness memory all the time.
It now appears that memory can be reconstructed: due to the way the brain makes sense of the world

4. Recovered Memories
Sigmund Freud was convinced that when we forgot something, we were repressing it, in order to keep our conscious self from knowing things we cannot cope with.
He argued that a therapist was needed to recover these memories.
However, it soon became clear that the memories that were recovered were false memories

5. Loftus
Loftus began to study false memories in 2002 when eye-witnesses of the DC sniper attacks told authorities the van he was driving was white
It was actually green
One person had come forward saying it was white
After that, the other witnesses believed that is what they saw based on post-event information

6. Loftus and Palmer 1974
Claims the nature of questions can influence eyewitness memory
Showed 45 students film of a car accident
Asked students to estimate the speed of the car
Independent Variable: “Hit” “Smashed” “Collided” “Bumped” “Contacted”
Found average speed was dependant on the word that was used

7. Word Used
Mean Speed Estimate
Smashed
40.8
Collided
39.3
Bumped
38.1
Hit
34.0
Contacted
31.8

8. Loftus and Palmer Part II
150 participants in three groups shown film of a car accident
Used word, “hit” or “smash” and a control
Wanted to see if memory was changed when it was retrieved
A week later participants were asked if they remembered seeing broken glass

9. Findings There was no broken glass
32% of the smashed group reported seeing glass
14% of the hit group reported seeing broken glass
6% of the control group reported seeing broken glass

10. SO what?
Loftus concludes that a false memory may be created using post- event information
Criticism:
Lab – no ecological validity
All US participants – may be a cultural bias
Yuille and Cutshall 1986 replicated in a natural setting
Interviewed people who had witnessed a real robbery
Wording did not seem to effect the recall

11. Reproduce the Story

12. Loftus and Pickrell Lost in the Mall
Participants, who had agreed to be in the study, were sent a five page booklet in the mail
The booklet contained instructions for the experiment, and 4 short events which their relative had described about their childhood
3 males and 21 females age 18 to 53

13. Procedure
Three of the events in the booklet were real, one was fake (it had never occurred)
The fake memory was about being lost in a mall
The participants read the events, and wrote down what they remembered about the events, or if they did not remember it, and sent the book back

14. Procedure
The subjects were interviewed 2 weeks later, and then another two weeks later
The subjects were asked to recall as many details as possible from the 4 events, then rate clarity and confidence
Results:
Out of the 72 true events, 49 were remembered
Out of the 24 false events, 7 claimed they clearly remembered
19/24 recognized the mall memory was false
Even though only a small percent created false memories, this shows that it is possible

15. Bartlett
Remembering 1932
Schemas may influence recall and culture may influence schemas
Schemas are used to encode events into memory
We encode events into schemas we have already created
These schemas fill in information that we may have forgotten

16. Bartlett used serial reproduction
One person produces the original story, a second person must reproduce the first and so on (telephone)
If a person misunderstands something they hear, their schemas will fill-in the gap with something else that logically makes sense to them
Shows how rumors and gossip spread

17. Bartlett – War of Ghosts
Native American Legend
Participants read the story twice
After 15 minutes they had to reproduce it from memory
Then asked to reproduce a few more times
Found that the story changed each time it was reproduced

18. Findings
Harder for people in western cultures to reproduce the story because of its unfamiliar style and content
Similar reproductions
Story became shorter – by about 180 words
Remained a coherent story
Became more conventional – the reader only retained details that could be assimilated into shared past cultural experiences, or schemas

19. The right side of the room , close your eyes

20. Who did you see?

21. Who did you see?

22. Loftus et al (1987): The weapon focus effect
Participants were asked to wait in a waiting room, where they heard a discussion in the room next door.
There were 2 conditions:
No weapon condition (man with greasy hands emerged from another room holding a pen)
And weapon condition (a man came from another room with a bloody paperknife).
Participants were later asked to identify the man from a selection of 50 people.
Results:
Results showed that participants from the no-weapon condition were more accurate in recall.
Conclusion:
Loftus concluded that the weapon drew more attention than the pen, so their attention was allocated to the weapon than the face.