Reconstructive Memory - Reflection Paper Psychology
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PSY1002
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Psychology
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Psychology
It is a reflection paper on the reconstructive processes of memory, providing evidence and references to establish whether eyewitness testimonies should exist.
Samenvatting Psychology, Global Edition, ISBN: 9781292159713 Psychology: an Orientation
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Reflection Paper
People usually have this false belief that their memories are accurate, when in reality their
memories have underwent numerous processes of revision and editing. Constructive or
reconstructive memory refers to the ability or tendency of memory to alter and change when
remembering something. This ability is influenced by various factors which may include
perception, imagination and beliefs. In her TED talk “How reliable is your memory?”, Loftus
also gave a very interesting and relatable example for reconstructive memory. She states that
we can think of memory as a Wikipedia page where we can go in and change the information
but so can other people.
Some researchers, among which Elizabeth Loftus is one of the most prominent ones, have
provided us with abundant amount of evidence in the field of memory retrieval and
constructive processes relating to it. I will give you examples of the studies conducted, but
before that, I feel it is necessary to describe a few concepts. Among these are the
misinformation effect; the ability of misleading information that may be presented after an
event to change the memories of the event itself, and false memory syndrome; the concept of
false or inaccurate memory creation through the suggestions of others. False memory
syndrome is more likely if the person is under hypnosis.
One of Loftus’s famous experiment conducted in collaboration with John C. Palmer is known
as; “Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction Between
Language and Memory”. In this study, two experiments were conducted where participants
were shown videos of car accidents and afterwards, they had to answer questions relating to
the events they saw in the videos. This study focused on how well people remember details of
complex events such as a traffic accident. Previous studies have shown that people are
remarkably incorrect in reporting specific details such as time, speed and distance when
repeating the details of the accident that took place. In this study, participants were asked
questions relating to the speed of the cars in one of several ways. Some were asked, “About
how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, while others were asked. “About
how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”. The study showed that
the language, and how the questions are phrased effects how participants respond. When the
leading smashed question was asked, participants were more likely to say the cars were going
faster than when they were asked if they cars hit each other. In the second part of this study,
the experiment conducted asked the participants an additional question; “Did you see any
broken glass?”- when in actuality there was no broken glass at the scene of the accident. As
with the previous experiment, the probability of participants saying yes to this question was
higher when they were asked the leading smashed question.
Eyewitness testimonials in trials as an evidence of crime have been used for a long time.
Eyewitness testimony is when a person is witness to a crime and later stands in court and
retell all the details of the witnessed event. Several studies conducted have shown that there is
a phenomenon known as misinformation effect, which is when information that people may
be exposed to after or at the time of the event can lead to the contamination of memories and
of what they have witnessed. Elizabeth Loftus is one of the world’s leading expert witness on
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