How Reliable Is Your Memory

Critical Thinking & Reflection Post #3
After watching the TED Talk, “How Reliable is Your Memory” I was saddened to learn how unreliable eyewitness testimony is since hundreds of people’s lives have been ruined because of it. It is important to consider that not every memory someone remembers is real and while their intentions may not be to lie, memory itself gets changed unconsciously. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus did some amazing research in understanding false memories and explained how it relates to real-world situations. Dr. Loftus’s studies made me think back to my own childhood memories and I realized much of what I remember are things that my parents told me which contaminated my memories. If my parents told me a lie, I would think that lie

Loftus’s research on false memories relates to the concepts of episodic memory and retroactive interference. Episodic memory is the type of memory that Dr. Loftus talks about, an autobiographical memory is defined as the memory of things we have experienced. In the case of Steve Titus when the victim is asked to identify the offender in the lineup she says Titus is the one that looks the closest, but later in the trial, she states she is 100% certain it is him. This example relates to retroactive interference because when she is trying to recall his face the first time she is unsure if he indeed raped her. Meanwhile, during the trial she states she is certain he is the rapist since her memories have been altered by outside forces. Consequently, in the trial she is not taking into consideration that the first time she saw him she wasn’t completely sure it was him. In conclusion, now the new memories are affecting her response and interfering with what truly transpired. Most of the time people do not realize their memory changes and are sensitive to the outside world, where anything can affect it, which is what happened to the victim. The things that happened after the rape are interfering with the accuracy of her memory and led her to put an innocent man in jail. This is a perfect example of how false memories are created and how they affect daily life as what happened to Titus could have happened to