THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Thanks For The Memories!

Tiffany McIntosh
Psy 211
Maureen Donegan

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Abstract
This paper explores the four experiments and their methods and response to memory.
One of the leading researchers in the field of memory is Elizabeth Loftus at the
University of Washington. Her hypothesis states that If eye witnesses are asked
questions that contain a false presupposition about the witnessed event, the new false
information may be incorporated into the witnesss memory of the event and appear
subsequently in new testimony by the witness (Hoke 119). The four experiments
included a short film with questions after, questions that were worded different, a false
presupposition, and lastly, adding something to memory that was never there. With
these four experiments being tested they influenced both memory theory and criminal
law.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Thanks For The Memories

The question Why do people believe that eyewitness reports provide such
strong evidence in criminal cases? (Hoke 117) came up in the reading Thanks For The
Memories and today psychologists who study memory have noticed that the reliability
on human memory isn't so great. When re-calling an event its like a DVD playing or a
video in your head. But when you recall en event you are really reconstructing that
event but you don't even know it. Elizabeth Loftus, from the University of Washington
conducted four experiments that proved very subtle influences in how a question is
asked or worded can alter a persons memory.
Elizabeth conducted four experiments. The first being 150 participants who
watched a short one minute film of a four second five-car chain reaction accident
because the driver drove through the stop sign. Following the film was a ten
questionnaire. All the questions were the same except for the first one. fro one group
the question was, How fast was Car A [the car that ran the red light] going when it ran
the stop sign? The second being How fast was Car A going when it turned right? The
last question they had to answer was Did you see a stop sign for Car A?.
Experiment two was the only one out of these four experiment to not use an
automobile accident as the witness event. This experiments purpose was to involve a
delayed memory test by wording a question differently to pursue them into the answer
the conductors wanted to hear. Participants were asked to watch a three minute
documentary and answered twenty questions after with one groups question being
worded slightly different from the other group. The participants came back a week later
and answered twenty more. By the end of this experiment it showed that just by wording

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

a question differently participants remembered the basic characteristics of the

witnessed event.
For the third it was designed to see if false presupposition in a question could
cause a witness to change their memory of an event and include objects that really
weren't there. 150 participants were involved and they watched a short video involving
an accident with a white car. They answered ten questions about the video after. In the
questionnaire they asked questions about a barn and did you see the barn. In reality the
barn wasn't there but because the question asked if they saw it their minds changed
their memory and acted like there was a barn in the short video.
For the last experiment Loftus wanted to get two things out of it; demonstrate the
memory reconstruction effects in experiment three and if the mention of an object could
be added to memory. Three groups of fifty participants viewed a short video like the
other experiments. Group one was asked questions about the nonexistent objects,
group two had questions that contained presuppositions about the nonexistent objects
and group three, the control group, only had filler questions. A week later the same
participants came back and the differences between the direct question group and the
false-presupposition group for each item were statically significant.
Based on the results of this study they seems to mean that the human mind
plays tricks onus everyday. We try to recall memories but we either don't remember
them or things are placed in our brains pretending that we actually saw them.
Experiment four was the experiment that really expressed that. Just by changing the
wording of a question drastically changes the way people see and answer back to
things.

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Personally, I didn't know that your mind is altered or reconstructed as time goes
on so I don't have a personal connection besides the fact that I'm guilty myself. An
example from the book was during court and having eye witnesses. Witnesses to a
crime are more often questioned more than once because of this experiment. Judges
also change the wording of their questions as well to see if the witness is telling the truth
and if they change their mind over time. One study citing Loftuss 1975 article
examined how lawyers complicated questions negatively affect eyewitness accuracy
and confidence (Hock 123).
With this knowledge we have due to Elizabeth Loftus we now know the true
about memory play tricks on us and how strong our memory can be. Little doubt now
stands between the psychological and legal professions today and that eyewitness
reports have too many sources for error. Also thanks to Loftus main body of research
the reliability of eyewitnesses in court are now justifiably questioned.

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5
Works Cited

Ciccarelli, Saundra K., and J. Noland. White. Psychology / Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland
White. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
Hock, Roger R. Forty Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of
Psychological Research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.