In the News
Introduction
Prevalence and Importance of False Memories:
New York Times article provides an overview of “False Memory Syndrome” and the dramatic effects it has had on individual lives.
Unit 1: Short-term Memory
nothing at this time
Unit 2: Long-term Memory
Gist and Long Term Memory:
BBC radio show “Mind Changers” does a piece on Frederic Bartlett, featured in Dr. Brainerd’s lecture, on his influential study using the Native American War of the Ghosts story. Includes option to read the story and test your own memory.
Unit 3: Implicit and Explicit Memory
Priming:
Article from the New York Times describing how jury selection techniques may have primed a jury’s biases or opinions in a defamation lawsuit.
Unit 4: Forgetting
Neurological Basis of False Memories:
Article in the New York Times describing neurological differences between true and false memories revealed by PET scans. A little old, but still interesting, and mentions implications for the law.
Memory Failure:
Review of the book The Seven Sins of Memory by Daniel Schacter that provides a good review of the material covered in lecture. Introduction to the book is also online.
Unit 5: Metacognition and Metamemory
Eyewitness Identification:
An article from the National Institute of Justice describing potential improvements to the eyewitness identification process in lineups.
An article in the New York Times describing the far reaching effects of faulty eyewitness identification in the legal system as well as changes made in an attempt to correct the issue. Also useful for Unit 11.
Familiarity:
An interesting New York Times Magazine article that reviews the phenomenon of false memory, particularly feelings of familiarity (déjà-vu) and delves into some theoretical explanations. Also useful for Unit 8.
Unit 7: False Memory and the Law
Source Monitoring:
An article in the New York Times from the 1990s describes how important source-monitoring errors can be in the law.
Gist:
An article in the New York Times describing how an expert witness in the Andrea Yates trial falsely testified about a Law and Order episode that never happened, but was actually a combination of a variety of Law and Order episodes that were consistent with the facts of Yates’ case.
According to this New York Times article, animations of crime scenes and events may lead to gist-consistent false memories.
Witness Suggestibility:
A New York Times article describes the overturn of Kelly Michael’s conviction and the growing awareness of witness suggestibility in abuse cases, particularly among children.
Coerced Confessions:
An article in the New York Times describing the supposedly coerced confession of a babysitter in a sexual abuse case.
Unit 8: False Memory Theories
See Unit 5 “familiarity” link
Unit 9: Lab Research: Adults
nothing at this time
Unit 10: Lab Research: Children
See Unit 5 “familiarity” link
Unit 11: Criminal Investigations: Adults
Police Techniques:
A BBC News article describes efforts to understand and refine police investigation techniques that may cause false memories
False Confessions:
An article in the New York Times describing the prevalence of false confessions and techniques to reduce them during investigations. Includes video.
Two New York Times articles (one and two) describing the false confessions of those wrongly convicted in the Central Park jogger case.
Articles from the Democrat and Chronicle and New York Times about Douglas Warney, a man who falsely confessed to the murder of civil rights activist William Beason and was freed by DNA evidence 10 years later. Also useful for Unit 10.
Unit 12: Criminal Investigations: Children
Article from the New York Times detailing the McMartin trials, in which children served as the key witnesses in the case against preschool owners who were accused of inflicting Satanic sexual abuse upon the children in their care.
Article from the New York Times and website based at University of Missouri Kansas City law school detailing the Kelly Michaels case, in which a teacher was sentenced to 47 years in prison based for child abuse based on the testimony of children in her classroom.
Two additional New York Times articles [one and two] describing suggestibility of child eyewitnesses
Unit 13: Psychotherapy and False Memory
“Repressed” Memories:
An older article in the New York Times describing how therapeutic techniques may produce false memories, especially regarding child abuse.
Another New York Times article casting doubt on therapeutic techniques in the courtroom.
A New York Times article on hypnosis and false memories.
A New York Times article describing the success of a father who sued psychotherapists for inducing false memories of abuse in his daughter.