The False Memory Experiment

What is false memory? False memory is a psychological phenomenon in which a person recollects something differently than the way it actually happened or recalls an event that never existed.

This phenomenon of memory has been tested many times using the Wadsworth CogLab false memory experiment. In the Wadsworth experiment, participants are presented with a list of words each of which is shown for one and half seconds. These experiments usually entail six trial lists. After each list is shown, the participants are given a set of response buttons labeled with the words from the list. The buttons also include normal distractor words (a word that is unrelated to the list but was not shown), and special distractor words (a word that is related

Loftus has focused the bulk of her career on both the psychological and legal aspects of distorted or false memories, and her work demonstrates the facility with which memories and beliefs can be molded. Her findings regarding the strength of eyewitness testimony and repressed traumatic memories have helped change the notion that such testimony is absolutely reliable (Zagorski, N., 2005).” What she has discovered over her more than thirty-year career, is that when witnesses are primed with leading questions, the suggestibility of even one word can cause that information to be integrated into a person’s memory then combined with other information to create a composite memory of what they believe is an authentic occurrence, but in reality, it is misinformation acceptance. Here some examples that Dr. Loftus has used in her

Investigators should use open-ended questions such as, “What can you tell me about…” They could also use closed-ended questions, “What was the color/style/size etc. of …” They should avoid leading questions offering specifics such as size, style, color, brand, etc. Photographs offered to a witness for identification should all be in the same format, style, color, and size and the persons depicted should all be of similar characteristics with respect to age, sex, and race in relation to the witnesses’ description. For live lineup identifications, all persons should be of similar characteristics and the lineup should be double-blinded, meaning that neither the presenter nor the witness knows if an actual suspect is being presented. The presenter should make sure that the witness understands that it is just as important to clear the innocent, as it is to convict the guilty (Janet Reno, J., Fisher, R. C., Robinson, L., Brennan, N., Travis, J., 1999). Informing a witness that they do not have to select a suspect has been proven to lead to fewer false identifications (APA, 2016). Selection feedback to a witness after selecting has been proven to enhance or decrease a witnesses’ confidence in their choice. No feedback should be given to a witness about their selection (APA, 2016). Some studies have shown that lineups and photographs when given sequentially rather than