Memory
Memory Distortions
“What you end up remembering isn’t always the
same as what you have witnessed.”
-Julian Barnes
Liar or False Memory?
Timeline
 2003: the chinook ahead was shot by RPG
 2013: MY helicopter was hit by RPG
 2015: my helicopter hit by RPG, crippled
Most of us believe memory is like a
video camera
Think it captures accurate record, that can be
replayed over and over
In Reality, Memory is malleable
 Memories can fade, shift over time
 Reconstructive process, fragments of event are stored in different
parts of the brain
 Real memories can be altered with each telling
 Entirely new false memories can be incorporated
 False, faulty memories can be just as vivid, detailed as accurate
memories
Seven Sins of Memory
 Forgetting & Remembering:
 transience
 absentmindedness
 blocking
 Persistence
 Distortions of Memory:
 misattribution
 suggestibility
 bias
1. Memory Bias
 Memory bias: the changing of memories
over time so that they become consistent
with current beliefs or attitudes
 Self-serving function
 Emotional events
Flashbulb Memories
 flashbulb memories:
vivid episodic memories
for circumstances in which
people first learned of a
surprising, consequential,
or emotionally arousing
event
 Where were you on
9/11??
President Bush learns about 9/11
Memory #1
 On December 4, 2001, the President was in Florida giving a speech and
answering questions from the audience. One questioner was a young boy named
Jordan:
 Jordan: Mr. President . . . how did you feel when you heard about the terrorist
attack?
 The President: Well, Jordan, you’re not going to believe what state I was in
when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my chief of staff,
Andy Card—actually I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that
works. And I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an
airplane hit the tower—the TV was obviously on, and I use[d] to fly myself, and
I said, ‘There’s one terrible pilot.’ And I said, ‘It must have been a horrible
accident.’ But I was whisked off there—I didn’t have much time to think about
it, and I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my chief who was sitting
over here walked in and said, ‘A second plane has hit the tower. America’s under
attack’ (President holds town meeting, 2001).
Memory #2
 On December 20, 2001 (Balz, personal communication), Dan Balz and Bob
Woodward of the Washington Post interviewed the President for a story entitled
‘10 Days in September.’
 Bush remembers senior adviser Karl Rove bringing him the news, saying it
appeared to be an accident involving a small, twin-engine plane. In fact it was
American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 out of Boston’s Logan International
Airport. Based on what he was told, Bush assumed it was an accident. ‘This is
pilot error,’ the president recalled saying. ‘It’s unbelievable that somebody
would do this.’ Conferring with Andrew H. Card Jr., his White House chief of
staff, Bush said, ‘The guy must have had a heart attack’ . . . . [Deleted paragraph
on the location of the rest of Bush’s advisors and cabinet members] . . . . At 9:05
a.m., United Airlines Flight 175, also a Boeing 767, smashed into the South
Tower of the trade center. Bush was seated on a stool in the classroom when
Card whispered the news: ‘A second plane hit the second tower. America is
under attack’ (Balz & Woodward, 2002).
Memory #3
 On January 5, 2002, the President was in California answering questions
from an audience. Once again, someone asked him about his immediate
reaction to the terrorist attacks:
 Questioner: What was the first thing that went through your head when
you heard that a plane crashed into the first building?
 The President: . . . . Anyway, I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff—
well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this
plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I
thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make
such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or—
anyway, I’m sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came
and said, ‘America is under attack’ (President holds town hall forum,
2002).
Compare 3 descriptions
 Inconsistent
 Memories 1 & 3 different than Memory 2
 Impossible
 no existing footage of first plane hitting building
Flashbulb memories can be inaccurate
 Vivid, detailed
 Person has high confidence in accuracy
 Visual images lead to stronger memories, but more
likely to lead to memory errors:
 When people asked to reflect on event they haven’t seen, for
example, they may imagine how it must have looked
 These images are memorable as well, and can easily be mistaken
for real memories
2. Source Misattributions
 Source misattribution: memory distortion that
occurs when people misremember the time, place,
person, or circumstances involved with a memory
Biggest selling song in 1971
Where did idea come from?
 1976 copyright infringement case: 1963 song by The Chiffons,
“He’s so fine”
 Side by side, the two songs were painstakingly analyzed. “The
plaintiff had huge charts made up with the three notes from Motif
A and the four or five notes from Motif B drawn on them,”
Harrison recalled. “And they talked about these for about three
days, to the point where I started to believe that maybe they did
own those notes.”
 In the end, Harrison was found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism”
and had to pay $1,599,987 of the earnings from “My Sweet Lord”
to Bright Tunes
Cryptomnesia
 “I wasn’t consciously aware of the similarity when I
wrote the song,” Harrison said. “But once it started to
get a lot of airplay, people started talking about it, and
it was then I thought, ‘Why didn’t I realize?’ It would
have been very easy to change a note here or there and
not affect the feeling of the record.”
Source Amnesia
 person shows memory for
an event but cannot
remember where he or she
encountered the
information
 “Mr. Science” Experiment
3. Suggestibility and Misinformation
 the development of biased memories from
misleading information
 memories for inaccurate details due to reconsolidation,
e.g. retelling their stories to police, friends, and relatives
Leading Questions: Loftus & Palmer (1974)
Post-video questions alter memory
 Asked one of two
questions:
 How fast were cars going
when they hit each other?”
 How fast were cars going
when they smashed each
other?”
Word used affected estimate of speeds of
car
40.8
39.3
38.1
34.0
31.8
One week later: False memories in
“smashed” group
Memory and Guessing, Visualization
The leading question affected students’ estimates of speed and also their
willingness to say there was broken glass.
Leading questions alter memory for event
False Memories
 Loftus & Pickrell:
“Lost in the Mall
Experiment”
 Scenario: lost for an
extended period at age 5
crying, aid and comfort
by an elderly woman and,
finally, reunion with the
family.
Sample Story
You, your mom, Tien, and Tuan all went to the Bremerton KMart.You must have been 5 years old at the time.Your mom
gave each of you some money to get a blueberry Icee.You ran
ahead to get into the line first, and somehow lost your way in
the store. Tien found you crying to an elderly Chinese
woman.You three then went together to get an Icee.
Results
 25% (6/24) of the participants reported some
recollection of the false experience.
 When asked which childhood event was false,
5/24 participants chose a different event as
being the false event.
False Memory Summary
 Memories can be distorted, or even implanted,
by false information
 Imagining an event might lead to confusion of the
mental image with a real memory
 Corroboration by family members or others can
increase false memories
Implications for Eyewitness Testimony
 Critical to the legal system
 Are eyewitness memories accurate?
Research suggests problems
 Jurors like eyewitness testimony
 Witnesses tend to be very confident
 But, People tend to make poor eyewitnesses:
 they often fail to pay attention to the incidents and
people they observe
 they are suggestible to misleading information
 Can get details wrong
 Stories change over time
Faulty Eyewitness Testimony
Importance
 Single most frequent cause of wrongful
conviction
 Wells et al. (1998) examined cases of individuals who
were convicted of crimes and later exonerated on the
basis of DNA testing
 Eyewitness error was involved in 90% of the cases
 Scheck, Neufeld, & Dwyer (2000)

Eyewitness error was involved in 84% of the 100 cases
System variables
 Controlled by the justice system
 Preventable errors
 Type of questioning
 Nature of lineup or photo array
 Videotaping procedures
Other factors
 Giving eyewitnesses lots of time for identification
 Presenting suspects in a lineup, or asking witness to pick
between options
 Cross-ethnic identification
How to improve Eyewitness Testimony
Change System Variables
 Don’t ask leading questions
 Present suspects one at a time
 Have presenter blind to condition
 Ask for a quick response, don’t let witness deliberate too
long
 Be suspicious of extreme confidence
Eyewitness Confidence
 Eyewitnesses who are wrong are just as
confident as (or more confident than)
eyewitnesses who are right
 Strong confidence for minor details may be a cue that the
memory is likely to be inaccurate or even false
False Memories can lead to False
Confessions
Kassin Studies: Induction of false
confession in innocent subjects
 Subjects asked to do task
on computer
 Falsely accused of
damaging key by pushing
wrong key
 Initially deny charges
False Eyewitness account can induce confession
 Confederate said they saw
subject hit that key
 many subjects signed a
confession
 went on to create details
consistent with accusation
(confabulation)