Both Cotton’s and Titus’ stories show the adverse effects of false memory. An assailant broke into Jennifer Thompson’s house and raped her. Throughout the ordeal, Jennifer assessed details of the man to aid the police in catching him if she survived (Stahl, 2009). Later on, Jennifer incorrectly identifies Cotton as the assailant, without realizing that her memory was not as correct as she thought it to be (Stahl, 2009). Titus was convicted in a similar manner. Loftus (2013) indicates that the identification process for eyewitness is corrupted by providing suggestive information as seen in the case of Jennifer. After taking the memory test from the Brian Brushwood video, it is clear that memory can be twisted (Brushwood, 2007). After Brian reads out the first set of words, it becomes so evident that “sweet” was read out. However, this is false since the mind used the suggestive information of the other items in the list to think that it was actually there.
All three videos clearly show that memory is not entirely reliable. There is no direct correlation between memory accuracy and the subjective feeling of certainty about a memory (Brushwood, 2007). There are numerous reasons as to why tiny mistakes in memory may occur. Suggestibility is one of these reasons, where a person’s memory is increasingly susceptible to suggestive misinformation (Loftus, 2013). Experiments by Loftus show that subjects are often unable to remember critical details from visual events, once false memories are introduced (Loftus, 2013).Maintenance rehearsal ensures that memories do not rapidly decay from the STM storage (Coon et al., 2018). STM is sensitive to interruption meaning that continuous rehearsal can introduce false information into the memory, while trying to preserve it in the brain (Coon et al., 2018). Eyewitnesses should not be used as evidence to convict criminals. Cotton and Titus’ encounters show that memory is often altered during the investigation process, where police provide suggestive information to eyewitnesses. The malleable nature of memory increases the risk of wrongfully convicting an innocent person. I have experienced an altered memory, where I remember a dog biting me while in real sense it had only barked and chased me away. The contributing factors include the trauma and the association of the dog with a bite. Thinking about the ordeal too much makes it seem as if the dog bit me.
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References
Brushwood, B. (2007, June 25). SSS (5of14) False Memory and Eyewitness Testimony [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfhIuaD183I
Coon, D., Mitterer, J., & Martini, T. (2018). Psychology: Modules for Active Learning 14e . Cengage Learning.
Loftus, E. [The Curious Classroom]. (2013, November 3). Elizabeth Loftus on Eyewitness Testimony [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCswq5JDTaw
Stahl, L. [CBS News]. (2009, March 9). Eyewitness Testimony Part 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-SBTRLoPuo
