Applications of Memory
Research to Legal Psychology and Eyewitness Memory
Research to Legal Psychology and Eyewitness Memory
Our memories readily incorporate information from
other sources into our original memory of an event
Misremember information
Who developed the methodology
Developed by Elizabeth Loftus
Older adults are more susceptible to a host of memory illusions that can be caused by
Suggestive statements
Misattribution of source
Associative meaning
The tendency to incorporate information from sources
other than the original witnessed event
Suggestibility
Experimental study by Cochran resulted in
The majority of participants failed to detect the alteration in their own reports
Many participants incorporated the misinformation into theirmemory report in a final memory test
The Recognition test showed that
Older participants showed a bigger misinformation
effect than did younger participants
What can subtly influence the nature of a
witness’s memory
Wording
The study by Gordan et al. showed
Repeated questioning by the police can leave witnesses more susceptible to misleading questions later
What is Source memory
The ability of an individual to remember from whom or where he or she learned something
How much of a change can wording affect memory
The simple change from an indefinite article to a
definite article raised the rate of false memory
from 7% to 18%
What is the Coexistance hypothesis
One memory about the original event and then form a second memory of reading questions or a summary after the event it is composed of both retrieved information from the first event and any new information derived from the postevent questions
What are Misidentifications in perceptions
When older adults misperceive an object, they will often forget the correction that then leads them to correctly identify the object
What are the contributions of legal psychology
Many aspects of the legal system reflect important
psychological processes
Witnesses to crimes must rely on memory to help
police with their investigations
Interrogation of criminal suspects also depends
heavily on psychological research
What is Trace impairment view
Original memory is altered by the misinformation.
Also called the “blending” view, as the new memory is a blending of the original event and the memory of the later information, including the misinformation
Divided attention can lead older adults to make
Misattribution of Source