Accuracy of Memories
Whether memories are accurate or not has promoted conduction of various researches. Even though, many individuals are confident in the accuracy of their memories, this confident has been questioned through various researches, which contend that our memories are not reliable. Therefore, this has raised the issue of malleability as many influences may cause these memories to change. The paper seeks to explore on how memories affect the daily lives of people such as administration of justice.
Memories are precious and people cannot d do away with them. They are integral to the lives of people as they give people identity (Loftus, 2003, p. 231). Through memory, people are able to share and create bonds in their families and among friends. Therefore, memories may seem to be fixed as occasioned to certain situations and experiences that people get in. For instance, the idea of people being or remaining accustomed to their belief system is as a result of memories. Peoples’ memory about an episode that happened in their past may play a fundamental role in shaping their present and future life’s. Such beliefs that are well reserved in the memory my remain integral in their life’s hence impacting on the way they live.
How memory may be influenced
Memory keeps on changing and is usually influenced through people imaginations, leading questions about issues and through their recollection of things that happened to other people (Loftus, 2003, p. 231). For instance, people may remember an event that happened to their colleagues in the past and such events may impact on their decisions in life. This may also alter their way of perceiving certain things.
Memories are not fixed but rather flexible because of the varying everyday experiences that people face. These memories can be lost, created and changed over time. Memories can either be accurate or inaccurate. It is this dynamics of trying to substantiate whether memories are accurate or inaccurate that raises questions of validity or criminal conviction. Witnesses memories has time in memorial been used as evidence in the courts of law to provide evidence for the offenses. However, because of the lapses in memories, some of the people accused and put behind bars in prisons have been found not to be offenders. This, therefore, has raised questions of whether there is as sense of accuracy in the witness memory. Inaccurate memory can be compelling and may appear real as an accurate memory misleading people in their judgment.
Some people have temporary memories. Such people often forget easily things that they have encountered or experienced. However, they can remember some of the episodes if given some time. Others have a problem of storing new things and often will forget as soon as they are exposed to this information. This problem is contributed by lack of attention from the individuals or basically poor retention capabilities. Such people may not be helpful in playing the function of a witness because; they will not be able to remember some of the details that happened as their memory are short.
People memory can be scrambled in the process of trying to retrieve and piece together the original memory of a certain experience ((Loftus, 2003, p. 232). Scrambled memory in most cases, leads to conflicting narration or remembering of an event. This kind of memory is dangerous especially to the witnesses. A witness with scrambled memory is likely to send a person not guilty into a prison. The person may feel perfectly sure of the truth of the memory. Therefore, this is a clear indication that memory is malleable and therefore, should not be relied upon in making all the decisions. Scrutiny is called for especially in cases where there is participation of the witness in the case. In USA, countless cases of convictions have been made based on mistaken memories and therefore it raises a lot of concern to the authenticity or rather the accuracy of the memories. For instance, it is estimated that in 1991, around 7500 people were arrested for serious crimes and convicted falsely on false witnesses. Another case of faulty memory was the Washington DC sniper attacks in which ten people were killed in 2002. The witnesses claimed that they saw a white van fleeing the crime scene. Media repetitions also enhanced this perception in the minds of people and many believed that the people from the white car perpetrated the shootings. However, when investigation was carried out, it was revealed that the suspects were from a blue car.
Propositional memory also called semantic memory is based on facts and underlies general knowledge of the world. It allows people to remember things that happened in the past such as the death of a person. Recollection memory also called episodomic memory, experiential direct or personal memory and is memory of episodes or experienced events such as the passing away of a friend ten years ago. These kinds of memories are essential in enhancing understanding how memories work.
To prove the inaccuracy of people’s memories, various researches have been conducted. One of the investigation used photographs (Loftus, 2003, p. 232). The real photo was manipulated in a search a way that it captured the children experiences of the subjects. The false photo was pasted in the prototype photograph of a hot – air balloon. The family members of the subjects confirmed that the events had never happened on the subject in their childhood. The subjects were required to remember all things that happened in their childhood. More than 50% of the subjects recalled clearly the events that happened in their childhood such as the fictitious hot air balloon. This finding therefore, reveled that, people memory is malleable and can be changed. It changes with time and at the same time, it is possible to shape the memory of individual through the way a person behaves and in the way questions are structured.
Expression of memories in terms of confidence, vividness and amount of detail provided can be used to determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of someone’s memory. For instance, a person saying the reality or a person that is certain and sure about certain experience is deemed to have more confidence and is likely to express it vividly as opposed to that not sure or unable to recollect their memory. For example, an individual that witnessed his friend being killed is likely to be confidence in expressing this as opposed to someone that did not experience such incidence. However, it is also important to note that, some of the memories may be inaccurate but may be expressed with higher level of confidence and vividness. Being able to differentiate that that is accurate and inaccurate is the challenge that needs to be identified and approached decisively.
People real behaviors varies from one person to another because of various reasons, one of this is stress. During such circumstances, people tend to miss important information in their environment. This explains why a person is not likely to remember an assailment because, the person might have focused more on the weapon as posed to the person. A sense of time is also another factor. As time passes by people memories, get hazy and distorted causing people to have problems in their memories and in the remembering issues. Power of suggestion also influences the memory of human beings. Suggestive techniques that some of the psychotherapist use may lead to distortion of memories of individuals. Suggestive expressions lead patients to false beliefs and memories that caused have consequences to both the patient and those people accused (Loftus, 2003, p. 233). An example of suggestive expressions is, “you do not remember physical abuse, but you have the symptoms, so must imagine who may be behind this”. Such expressions may mislead the memories of the witness leading to false accusation. The best strategy to ensure that cases of memory contamination are reduced is allowing the witnesses to write down what they remember from the episode before talking to any person. This will help them to provide sufficient and up to date information pertaining to the experience or events that they saw or experienced.
Memory failure/distortion is also likely to lead to failure to convict a guilty person especially if their stories conflicts with that of other people. Therefore, through scientific research, such problems can be managed or minimized. People or leaders should be made not to make decisions based on their myths and misconceptions about memory but rather such knowledge should be shared among the relevant individuals and acted upon diligently. To ensure that this is achieved, there is need for intensive education campaigns to sensitize people on the different kinds of memory. Convicted people should access DNA testing to ensure that they are not convicted based on false witnesses (Loftus, 2003, p. 234). Furthermore, courts cases should be presided over by qualified and quality lawyers who will have to analyze witnesses in their cases. This will help to reduce cases of false witnesses and would ensure that justice is attained. Therefore, in conclusion, it is evidence that memory is prone to errors as many people may think. People memory can be infused with compelling illusory memories on important things in their lives. This inaccuracy in memory has caused many injustices to many people. Therefore, it is appropriate that such injustices are avoided and if not possible minimized to assure all the people that they can get justice.
Reference
Loftus, E. (2003). Our changeable memories: Legal and social implications, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4, 231-234.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|
Are you looking for a similar paper or any other quality academic essay? Then look no further. Our research paper writing service is what you require. Our team of experienced writers is on standby to deliver to you an original paper as per your specified instructions with zero plagiarism guaranteed. This is the perfect way you can prepare your own unique academic paper and score the grades you deserve.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]