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Memory and Eye Witness Accounts


             There is a generally excepted theory in the field of memory that the human memory does not work like a videotape recorder. We don't record an event and then play it back later, the process is much more complex. Countless scientific experiments communicate that our memories are sometimes distortions of reality and inaccurate images of the past. The human memory is something that is very malleable and over time memory changes, the more time passes, the more changes and distortions one can expect. As new events enter the picture the mind incorporates them into the original memory. .
             How does memory work and why does it so often fail us? Scientists agree that memories are formed when neurons link together to form new connections, or circuits, actually changing the contact between the cells; in the process, the memories are stored (Martinez, Kresner 239). Long term memories, which include experiences that happened just a few minutes ago as well as information several decades old, are stored in mental "files" somewhere in our brain (Martinez, Kresner 241). Every time we retrieve a file we have to reconstruct the event for ourselves. This often means that we add or change some feature of the memory. We do this not consciously, but on an unconscious level. Our long-term memory can be explained better as a storehouse of facts with a lifetime of events. This storehouse can hold an infinite amount of material. Event factors have to do with the acquisition stage of memory. The acquisition stage is when we perceive an event and our brains make the instantaneous decision to either discard the information or insert it into memory (Loftus 23). As time goes by and the memories change, we become convinced that we saw, said, or did what we remember. We perceive the blending of fact and fiction that constitutes a memory to be completely and totally truthful. Therefore, a person is never lying when they tell someone a memory they had, people truly believe in the memories they have.


Essays Related to Memory and Eye Witness Accounts

1. Eye Witness Study

Memory Recall 1 Running head: EYE WITNESS MEMORY RECALL Eyewitness Memory Recall: The Effects of Anticipation on Accuracy and Confidence Memory Recall 2 Abstract The present study is an examination of memory recall of eyewitnesses and the effects of anticipation on accuracy and confidence in an eyewitness incident. ... Researchers used questionnaires to assess participants knowledge about eyewitness accounts. Results indicated that participants knowledge and beliefs about eyewitness accounts were consistent with past literature and research. ... A sample of sixty-eight college part...

  • Word Count: 1109
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Eye witness testimony

Many errors are made when a witness of a crime or event attempts to recall the experience. ... This research is important in developing new ways to question eyewitnesses so that there are no wrongly convicted people and that police can gather an accurate account of a crime scene. ... Cognitive interviews rely on all the senses of the witness, asking what they smelt, tasted, heard, and also how they felt can help trigger more exact memories. ... If this is the case then the memory will be stored in their unconscious. ... The easiest way to recognise a person is through memory of the face....

  • Word Count: 1854
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. False Memory Production

Now that there is evidence that memories can seem real to the individual despite being are false, caused by other factors such as suggestibility, there is a considerable debate about the reliability of people's accounts of CSA. ... The study of false memories is particularly important because these false accusations based on false memories could lead to many problems in court cases, and problems with the reliability of witnesses. ... This is an example of the lure word associate list: thread, pin, eye, sewing, sharp, point, prick, thimble, haystack, thorn, hurt, injection, syringe, cloth,...

  • Word Count: 2369
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. bang-bang

These daring young men ventured off into the heart of South Africa's graveyards on a regular basis; often coming close to losing their lives, and witnessing some of the goriest scenes in south Africa's history. ... He arrived at a train station where we witnessed the inhumane, brutal murder of a Zulu man, Lindsaye Tshabalala , suspected of being an inkatha supporter: "The train pulled up to the station and grinded to a halt, some of the young combatants ran down to see if their where any inkatha supporters on the train. ... An eye opening account of what these men went through; ho...

  • Word Count: 816
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

In the second study, conducted at the University of California at San Diego, 132 patients seeing family doctors completed a diagnostic interview and questionnaire detailing 12 different kinds of traumatic experiences, ranging from combat to a violent rape to witnessing a disaster. ... However, physiological factors must also be taken into account when trying to discuss causes of PTSD. It is well known that traumatic memories are encoded differently than usual memories. ... These affected memories may then be organized, as visual images or physical sensations, then as non-declarative memory, w...

  • Word Count: 1921
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

While many people are skeptical of the Bermuda triangle many who have had experiences say things such as "It has become a permanent part of my memory, since I have been memorizing it for over 30 years.... However, much mystery is still left about the triangle such as, the paranormal experiences that cannot be disproved, and the eye witness testimonies but with the mystery comes the truth the scientific test that were conducted there is proof that natural occurrences could cause much of what happens in the triangle. ... " (Webster CNN) This strange account started the whole mystery...

  • Word Count: 1250
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Crime by George Lippard

He recounts the memory like this: "Gal liked me from that hour. ... Who shall find most mercy at the bar of Avenging Justice "you, with your prostituted talents, gathering round your guilty souls, so many witnesses of your utter degradation, or Devil-Bug, the doorkeeper of Monk-Hall, in all his monstrous deformity of body and intellect, yet with one redeeming memory, gleaming like a star, from the chaos of his sins?" ... It forced the big beaded drops of sweat out from the corded veins on his brow, it drove the blood from his face, leaving a black and discolored streak beneath each eye. (...

  • Word Count: 1860
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Analysis of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Unfortunately, Douglass" (a black man) first hand account of slavery did not cause as much of a controversy as Harriet Beecher-Stowe's (a white woman) non-fiction book, Uncle Tom's Cabin which was published later, in 1852. ... (p. 93- 94) Douglass details his first memory of the horrors of slavery as a witness to a beating of his Aunt Hester. ... In reference to the above instance of Aunt Hester, he stated "I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. ... It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a ...

  • Word Count: 2890
  • Approx Pages: 12
  • Grade Level: High School

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