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Memory and Eye Witness Accounts

            Memory is something we usually take for granted. However, simply imagine what life would be like without it. Every day we would have to learn things all over again (Loftus 3). In general memories are reliable however, precise memory is rarely asked of an individual and when errors are made in our everyday memories a person's life is not at stake. Every day we are bombarded with influences and images some of which we choose to remember and some we choose to forget. The danger of eyewitness testimony is clear; anyone in the world can be accused and convicted of a crime he or she did not commit based solely on the evidence of an eyewitness.
             To what extent can a person's memory be shaped by suggestions? When people witness a serious automobile accident how effectively can they relay the information they observed? If a witness is questioned about an incident, does the line of questions alter the representation of memory? .
             In trying to answer these questions the stages of memory should first be thoroughly understood. There are many stages of memory including acquisition, retention, and retrieval. Memory is not infallible; in truth it is very often wrong. This happens not by our own faults but because of the way it is stored and retrieved. Storing, encoding, and retrieval are the three basic stages of memory. Storing is when new information is introduced into the memory. This is done in everyday life when participating in as simple a task as walking down the street. Encoding is when you attach something to the information that makes it easier to remember. For example, a group of seven certain numbers can be grouped together and stored as a telephone number. Lastly, retrieval is the process by which you find the information after it has been stored. Some information can be very easily retrieved but some things are harder. .
             "Knowledge can be conscious or subconscious. In other words, there's a concept, which I think is accurate, that you never forget, that is, lose your memory with anything you've ever seen or heard, but that your ability to call it into your consciousness is quite limited".


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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