True Or False Memories Research Paper

True or False Memories

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Luisa Fernandez John Jay College Of Criminal Justice PSY& THE LAW 370, Robert Beattey

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True or False Memories 1

The article How to Tell If a Particular Memory Is True or False by Daniel M. Bernstein and Elizabeth F. Loftus, addresses the various techniques used by cognitive scientists and other researchers in hopes of distinguishing true from false memories. For this article Loftus and Bernstein, memory researchers, chose to discuss the different methods currently used, rather than trying to find new ways to tell if a particular memory is true or false. Their findings in these three different approaches

The neuroimaging techniques often used are the event-relate technique and functional magnetic resonance imaging. This techniques are responsible for capturing real time cognition, and where in the brain this cognition is taking place. The result of these studies present valuable information and show a closer approach to being able to tell true from false.

So far I have these two different methods use, but yet no concrete answer to a way in which we can tell if a particular memory is true or false. The authors of this article do a great job describing these different procedures. Yet, I believed they spent to much time explaining the process of such tests, rather than dwelling more on the results and findings of the experiments. So far, I would of like for the authors to introduce new methods other than the ones already performed by other scientist and

The next part of the article talks about focusing on the person reporting the memories and focusing on a particular memory. When researches focus on the person reporting the memories, their attempt is to decode if the person is lying intentionally or unintentionally. Tools like the polygraph and interrogation are often used by many professionals to catch malingerers and fakers (Loftus, Bernstein, p.371, 2009). The authors repeatedly stated that these procedures are not certain, and tend to provide bias results. Moreover, this time I see that the authors provided information in what they believe these research methods are lacking of. I like that they provided different measures that can be used along with other procedures already in