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The Memory Of A Memory Essay

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Recalling a memory seems like a simple task but are you actually depicting the events how they actually happened? Understanding the process our minds undergo during memory recall has helped greatly in legal cases involving an eyewitness. People generally believe that an eyewitness report provides completely reliable evidence to a criminal case. However, Elizabeth Loftus of the University of Washington has found that when an individual recalls a memory it is not described completely as it occurred but is reconstructed using other information as well. Loftus is a leading researcher in the memory field of psychology. In this experimental study she proposed that the manner in which a question is asked influences the individual’s answer. Prior to researchers like Loftus legal cases often came down to a point of the finger from an eyewitness; who consciously or not was not always reliable. Due to this unreliability Loftus created four experimental methods in relation to typical eyewitness cases in order to test her theoretical proposition. In the initial study, 150 subjects were shown a video of a five-car chain reaction accident that occurred when a car (Car A) drove through a stop sign into oncoming traffic. When the film finished the individuals filled out ten questions. One half of the group’s first question was “How fast was Car A going when it ran the stop sign?” The remaining individuals’ first question was “How fast was Car A going when it turned right?” Questions

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