Dr. Lenore Terr's Role in George Franklin Trial: Expert Testimony on Repressed Memories, Slides of Brain and Cognitive Science

Download Dr. Lenore Terr's Role in George Franklin Trial: Expert Testimony on Repressed Memories and more Slides Brain and Cognitive Science in PDF only on Docsity! Expert testimony of psychiatrist Dr. Lenore Terr, George Franklin trial, 1990 • Memories of particularly traumatic events can be repressed for years • A child who witnessed such a murder would be likely to repress the memory • Memory could be recovered later, when person feels safe and secure, in vivid and accurate detail. --Ofshe & Watters, 1994 Docsity.com What the jury was asked to believe: Recovered memories are highly accurate Repressed memories can be recovered Memories of traumatic events can be repressed Docsity.com Memory Distortions • Eyewitness research has shown that leading questions can distort memories in a number of ways (Loftus): – Distorting speed estimates in recalling an automobile accident (“collided” vs. “smashed”) – Remembering a detail that wasn’t there (“the gun,” “the stop sign,” broken glass) Docsity.com Why does this happen? • “Remembering” is actually a very constructive event, like putting a puzzle together when you don’t have all the pieces • A “memory” is made of pieces of events that are really stored in memory, plus – Inferences made at the time of the event – Inferences made between the event and recall – Inferences made at the time of recall Docsity.com Can we create false memories of autobiographical events? • Hyman’s research on false memories implanted in college students • Stephen Ceci’s research on suggestibility in children • Loftus’s “lost in a shopping mall” study Docsity.com