Memory Basics
What is the name of the brain’s ability to keep information?
Memory
What is it called when you repeat information repeatedly to remember it?
Rehearsal
What is it called when you remember something that didn’t really happen?
False memory
What is the special interview method used by investigators to help witnesses remember details?
The cognitive interview
What case involved false memories that led to many people being wrongly accused in the 1980s?
The McMartin Preschool trial
What part of the brain helps us form memories?
Hippocampus
What is a memory strategy where you make pictures in your mind to help you remember?
Visualization
Who studied how people can remember things that never happened?
Elizabeth Loftus
What do forensic psychologists do with witness memories in court?
The accuracy of the memory
What Supreme Court case showed that eyewitness memory isn’t always trustworthy?
The Perry v. New Hampshire case
What is the process of putting information into our brain called?
Encoding
What method uses familiar places to help you remember things?
The method of loci (memory palace)
What is it called when your memory changes because of wrong information?
The misinformation effect
What kind of memory is used when a witness describes what happened during a crime?
Episodic memory
Which famous serial killer was convicted using witness memory?
Ted Bundy
What is the term for breaking large pieces of information into smaller parts to remember?
Chunking
What is it called when you study the same information at different times to help remember better?
Spaced repetition
What is it called when someone remembers an event differently than it happened?
Memory distortion
What happens when a witness’s memory changes after hearing wrong information later?
Post-event misinformation
What case involved teens who were wrongly convicted because of false memories during questioning?
Central Park Five case
What are the three steps to remembering something?
Encoding, storage, and retrieval
What is the name of a memory trick where you use the first letters of words to make a new word?
An acronym
What is the name for questions that can change someone’s memory during an investigation?
Leading questions
Why is eyewitness memory sometimes unreliable?
Because memory errors or false memories can change it.
What case was overturned because DNA proved the eyewitness was wrong?
Ronald Cotton case