Counterintuitive Spring 2024

How Memory Effects Eyewitness Testimony

As our understanding of memory improves, new techniques to enhance their accuracy are making it possible for prosecutors to get reliable accounts of crimes from eyewitnesses.

Memory operates in stages and is affected by both system and estimator variables. “System variables” are those factors that the criminal justice system can influence, typically involving the actions of police (e.g., feedback and methods of eliciting the initial identification). “Estimator variables” are those factors that inherent in the event, such as the environmental conditions at the time and the characteristics of the witness and the perpetrator over which the criminal justice system has no control but that may have a substantial effect on the reliability of the identification.  

The scientific research on memory and eyewitness identification has both grown and matured over the past thirty years; there is now general scientific consensus on many areas affecting eyewitness identification, consensus that requires a change in the way courts, counsel, and police deal with the evidence. Scientists generally agree that “memory does not operate like a videotape” but rather is a “constructive, dynamic, and selective process.”

If memory errors  only affected our personal past, that would be bad enough. But the problems created by our lack in memory recollections affect all of society.  More than 75,000 prosecutions every year are based entirely on the recollections of others. While perjury is a felony, the overwhelming majority of eyewitness errors are not intentional mistakes.   However, they are the inevitable side effects of the remembering process.

In recent years, neuroscientists have documented how these mistakes happen. It turns out that the act of brining the past to the surface actually changes the memory itself. Although we have long imagined our memories as a stable form of information, a data file directly into the circuits of the brain, that persistence is an illusion. In reality, our recollections are always being altered, the details of the past warped by our present feelings and knowledge. The more you remember an event, the less reliable that memory becomes. This takes us back to the problem of eyewitness testimony. Eyewitnesses are repeatedly asked to recall what they saw, but their answers are inevitably influenced by the questions being asked.

Such errors often have tragic or irreversible consequences. According to the Innocence Project, a legal advocacy group, about 75% of false convictions that are later overturned are based on faulty eyewitness testimony.  Can anything be done to improve the situation? In a new paper by Neil Brewer, a psychologist at Flinders University in Australia, the answer is a resounding yes. Dr. Brewer focused on the police lineup, in which witnesses are asked to pick out a suspect from a collection of similar looking individuals.

Generally, witnesses are encouraged to take their time and carefully consider each possible suspect. But Dr. Brewer states, “that strong memory traces are easier to access than weak and mistaken ones, which is why he only gave his witnesses two seconds to make up their minds.” During his study he asked each witness to estimate how confident they were about the suspects they identified, rather than insisting on a simple yes-no answer.

To test this procedure, Dr. Brewer and his colleagues asked 905 volunteers to watch a series of short films showing such crimes as shoplifting and car theft. The subjects then looked at 12 portraits, only one of which was the actual suspect. According to Dr. Brewer’s data, his version of the lineup led to a large boost in accuracy, with improvements in eyewitness performance ranging from 21% to 66%. Even when subjects were quizzed a week later, those who were forced to choose quickly remained far more trustworthy.

The issue is that, when it comes to human memory, more deliberation is often dangerous. Instead of simply assessing our familiarity with a suspect’s face, we begin searching for clues and guidance. Sometimes this involves picking the person who looks the most suspicious, even if we’ve never seen him before, or being swayed by the subtle hints of police officers and lawyers. As a result, we talk ourselves into having a memory that doesn’t actually exist.

Fact, we can send a man to the moon, right?  So, prosecutors can work closer with memory experts and nail down the most accurate way to extract a point in time memory recall from an eyewitness.  Prosecutors can make simple enhancements to the criminal judicial system for a more reliable outcome from eyewitness testimony.   Unless we are ruthlessly skeptical of the past, we will continue to confuse fact and fiction, and innocent will be sent to jail.

    Work Cited

“Eyewitness Misidentification.” – The Innocence Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2015. “Eyewitness Misidentification“

Dorf, Michael C. “FindLaw Legal Commentary.” FindLaw’s Writ. N.p., Wed May 2001. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. “Find Legall Law Commentary”

Hartnett, Kevin. “How to Make Eyewitness Evidence More Reliable – The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com. N.p., 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. “How To Make Eyewtiness Testimony More Reliable”

“Memory.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2015. “Memory”

“How To Improve Eyewitness Testimony | WIRED.” Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. “How To Improve Eyewitness Testimony”

Our Currency Revolutionized

BitCoin is the currency of the future. Just as the internet completely revolutionized the communications industry, BitCoin will completely revolutionize the global economy. The online currency is rapidly growing in popularity and will only continue to do so in upcoming years.

By accounting for the deficiencies that come with a physical economy, BitCoin solves many of the problems our current currencies suffer from. One of the biggest problems with our current dollars and other currencies used around the world is inflation. Over time all currencies lose purchasing power at a rate of few percents per year mainly because governments keep printing more money. Only about 21 million Bitcoins will ever be released (mined). The release of new Bitcoins is slowing down and it will stop completely within a few decades.

And not only will BitCoin change the economy, but it will more than likely change the way we perceive currency as a whole. Instead of carrying around physical bills that can be lost or stolen, you can carry a billion dollars worth of Bitcoins on a memory stick in your pocket. It might seem like this concept is similar to the idea of credit and credit cards, but it’s much more secure.

There are of course critics of BitCoin who think that the currency is too new and therefore impossible to accurately make predictions about it. In their eyes, the world is simply not ready for BitCoin. But contrary to their beliefs, I think the new age internet currency can propel us much further than we previously thought possible.

Mauldin, John. “Is Bitcoin the Future?” Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 3 May 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2014/12/01/is-bitcoin-the-future/&gt;.

“New Money”. The Economist. The Economist Newspaper. 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 3 May 2015. <http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/03/bitcoin&gt;.

“Willpower and the Marshmallow Test Correspond”

The Marshmallow Test was a study of nursery children to see if they had the ability to challenge their temptations. A marshmallow was put in front of them on a plate and the child had two options-to either wait fifteen minutes and receive another, or to eat the marshmallow right away. Many children have a difficult time restraining their needs, and not realizing what the consequences might be in the future. Children, especially nursery aged, do not know or realize that they have or can have willpower. Some might have it without realizing. For example, if a child does wait those fifteen minutes to receive another marshmallow, they are resisting their temptations no matter how hard it is.

Willpower is to have control of one’s impulses and actions; self-control. However, willpower is also “the ability to resist short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.” In this case, children who were able to resist eating the first marshmallow were seen as having the ability to better stay in relationships when they were older. For instance, if a person can resist cheating on their partner, it can give them the ability of being loyal to him/her. The short temptations would be the cheating and the long-term goal would become loyal and perhaps starting a future together. But the question is why can some people resist their temptation, while others cannot? Suppose an individual needed to make some fast money and had two options in mind, having a healthy and steady job and having the salary $8 an hour or seeking out a secretive “spot” to help drug addicts fight their withdrawal symptoms making $1000 a day. The natural human instinct is to make the most money in a short amount of time, but what people do not realize in their moment of decision, is their long-term goals in contrast to short-term temptations.

For children to recognize this concept and understand how they can apply it to their everyday decisions can have a major impact on their lives and shapes them as individuals. According to Marina Chaparro, RD, one of the best things about willpower is that growing self-control in one areas of your life leads to other positive changes. Willpower changes the way people think. For instance, going to the gym may lead to eating healthier. Willpower is not innate, however it is similar to a muscle in a body where it can be strengthen over time. Yet, unlike muscles, willpower can be affected by emotions. If the child had a tough day, he/she might just eat the first marshmallow to make his or her day seem a bit better. Short-term temptations are diseases, cravings, thoughts that are turned into actions without rethinking about what the outcomes might be.

Those with high self-control also showed different brain patterns compared to those who had low self-control. For those who experience high self-control, researchers found that the prefrontal cortex becomes more active as opposed to those with low self-control; the ventral striatum shows a boost in activity. The Marshmallow Test is in fact a study testing children’s’ willpower and their self-control. Willpower has many factors including the child’s parents, the environment they grew up around, and if they have the ability to trust. Perhaps the individual working the $8 an hour job has a boost in their prefrontal cortex activity. On the other hand, the individual popularizing a certain secretive meeting spot does not have that advantage neurologically. The brain not only matures on its own, outside factors are a major component to this process, including the environment an individual is brought up in. Waking up everyday to the same surroundings shapes the way people think and act, and the people show them who to trust and who to look past. Growing up in an environment where children only know that the norm of their society is to have things and items taken away from them will cause them to grow up with having extremely low expectations and little to no trust in anyone around them.

Works Cited

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/willpower&gt;.

Manning, Joy. “Willpower: How You Can Get More of It and Why It Runs Out.” WebMD. WebMD, 29 July 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://www.webmd.com/diet/willpower-facts?page=1&gt;.

“Delaying Gratification.” Science 306.5695 (2004): 369l. American Psychological Association. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-gratification.pdf&gt;.

How to Implant False Memories on Friends

It’s counterintuitive to believe that humans often create detailed memories about life experiences that may never have occurred. Memory is different through every individual’s perceptions and can often be distorted before being cognitively stored. The common misconception that memory is “common sense,” has been proven inaccurate countless times by the research conducted by professional psychologist, trained in the study of the brain. Is it possible for humans to believe false memories? And if so, are we consciously aware when memories are being cognitively distorted?

In The Demon-Haunted World, astrophysicist Carl Sagan, argued that implanting false memories in people is possible, and even, relatively simple by following the correct steps. We believe memory begins with our personal experience. What someone tells us happened could never have the same reality for us as what we ourselves lived through. But Sagan insists there’s a technique for making people believe that they actually experienced things they’ve never lived through. Sagan broke down the manipulative process in four steps: 1. select one of your mates, 2. fabricate a memory, 3. prepare, and 4. set your plan in motion.

The first step, is to select a person to conduct the experiment on. It is suggested to select a test subject that you have known for at least five years, and have shared experiences together. It would seem odd to try and persuade a test subject of a specific memory, without a previous relationship with the individual first, as an amateur experimenter. Although, trained psychologist often are able to convince strangers of these fake memories during an experiment, with descriptive background stories. Sagan’s research indicates that selecting a friend who is “prone to suggestion,” or “vulnerable,” may increase test results.

The second step is to fabricate a memory. The fictional memory shouldn’t be something that might engender intense feelings of emotion. It’s essential to remember ethics in any experiment. Also, since the test subject is a friend, it’s important not to damage that friendship because of a test. Therefore, creating a traumatic event that has never occurred, wouldn’t be appropriate or ethical conduct. Studies have shown that it’s easier to make people recall small, detailed memories, rather than more complex ones. We tend to remember events more vividly when strong emotions were involved. Therefore, creating a false memory of a life-changing event wouldn’t be productive for the experiment. The test subject would most likely feel skeptical and unconvinced as a result of this dramatic, fake memory. A recommended memory to implement on a friend would be a childhood memory.

The third step is to prepare. It is important to create an in depth, background story of the false memory the experimenter is trying to convince the test subject of experiencing. The friend may ask questions about the false event while contemplating if the event actually occurred or not, so it’s important to be prepared with specific answers to make the memory more believable.

In 2002, psychologists exposed twenty subjects to a computer-generated photo of a hot air balloon. The researchers met with the test subjects separately and interviewed them on three different occasions. In each interview, the subjects were reintroduced to the hot air balloon photograph and asked to remember experiencing that event as a child. In the beginning of the experiment, the subjects didn’t recall experiencing the hot air balloon ride. The psychologists implemented a fake background story about the “experience” and reassured the test subjects that they’ve been on an air balloon ride before. At the end of the experiment, the results were astounding. At the study’s conclusion, fifty percent of participants said they at least somewhat, remembered the experience. Some participants actually described the balloon ride in great detail and how much fun they had, even though the memory didn’t exist. (Wade, Garry, Read, and Lindsay 2).

The fourth and final step, is to set your plan in motion. The use of peer pressure and phrases like, “You don’t remember that?” and “I clearly remember you being there with me… how could you not remember that?” pressures the subject to think harder about the false memory. As a result, the person may unconsciously create interesting so-called “memories” that never existed.

“Perhaps what we actually remember is a set of memory fragments stitched onto a fabric of our own devising. If we sew clearly enough, we have made ourselves a memorable story to recall,” says Carl Sagan.

Carl Sagan emphasizes that it’s very possible to recall false memories, considering much of what we remember is constructed, not recalled. Humans tend to remember stories, rather than small, facts about a particular event. Therefore, the process of manipulating a person to believe a false event, can be achievable.

Work Cited

Pomeroy, Steven. “How to Instill False Memories.” Scientific American. Scientific American, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/02/19/how-to-instill-false-memories/&gt;.

Wade, Kimberley, Maryanne Garry, J. Read, and D. Lindsay. “A Picture Is worth a Thousand Lies: Using False Photographs to Create False Childhood Memories.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/264/art%3A10.3758%2FBF03196318.pdf?auth66=1425275066_e4831af63d431920dd09db47f3b1d311&ext=.pdf&gt;.

Health and Happiness

The key obstacle for making healthier lifestyle changes is self-control.  Self control requires us to make decisions that go against our basic instincts such as putting off eating or deciding to spend time and energy on exercise.  Without self-control, people can quickly descend into bad habits that negatively affect their health.

Healthier lifestyle changes typically involve eating healthier, exercising daily, accomplishing life goals, or quitting a bad habit.  They are healthier changes because they improve the quality of life for the person they affect.  Eating healthier can involve maintaining a balanced diet, which can in turn lead to more energy, healthier skin and hair, and good sleep.  Exercising daily or getting into a workout routine can give similar benefits including increased strength, higher metabolism, and good sleep.  These changes give benefits to one’s quality of life, but must be maintained to keep the healthy benefits.  While the benefits of changing to a healthier lifestyle are undeniable, getting to a place where you can maintain the good habits is more difficult.

Eating healthier doesn’t always come naturally for everyone.  It may mean eating some foods that people don’t always like, or having to prepare meals that you don’t have time to make.  The fact is that people have to make themselves choose the healthier decisions, because it isn’t in our nature to regulate our diet.  Carnivores don’t typically pass up on a good meal just because they have to watch their calories, they eat when they can get it.  The difference lies in the fact that people usually have access to food all the time.  Hungry? Pick up a sandwich at Subway.  The issue lies in our self control to refuse the food that is constantly being offered to us.  The food being offered isn’t good for us either.  Food that’s full of salt or sugar, the usual preservatives that make us constantly hungry for more.  By refusing the food, we exercise our self-control, the more we exercise it, the easier it becomes.  Eventually people get used to eating on their own schedule

Works Cited

O’Donoghue, Ted. “Abstract: The Economics of Immediate Gratification.” Abstract: The Economics of Immediate Gratification. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.

Serenity, Channa. “Health Is Our Authentic Wealth: 7 Tips to Make Positive Lifestyle Changes.” MindBodyGreen. MindBodyGreen, LLC., 06 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.

Is It Really Treatment?

The city of Vancouver is a beautiful city, but it is also a port for drugs. The main drug being sold is heroin. For years now, Vancouver has been trying to treat and fix the heroin problem. They’ve set up a project called Insite, where addicts can go and shoot up heroin with clean syringes and medical supervision. While at the clinic police aren’t allowed to arrest the addicts while using. The city has since added to the project. Addicts are not only given medical supervision and clean instruments, but are also being given free heroin. The city claims that if the addicts are given a clean/safe environment and free heroin, then they won’t have to go out and commit crimes to obtain the drug in the streets.

The National Insitiute on Drug Abuse states that drug addiction treatment is the intent to help addicted individuals stop compulsive drug seeking and use. Vancouver claims that Insite is a treatment program, but the definition of drug addiction treatment clearly states that in order to be treatment it has to help addicts stop using. If you go by definition then the program isn’t drug treatment. The addicts that partake in this program can’t get over their addiction if they are being given heroin to shoot up. Instead Insite is sustaining their addiction.

“Merriam-Webster defines sustain as to provide what is needed for (something or someone) to exist, continue, etc” (Webster). Insite is sustaining their addiction with free/clean instruments, medical supervision/care, no legal punishment and actual drugs. There was a patient that is apart of the program that was asked on video if she would ever stop using. She answered saying that she will continue to use for the rest of her life. She says that the drug has become apart of her every day life. Insite just now makes it easier for her and other patients to continue using.

Also in the video is a man who is also apart of the program. It is stated that he and all the other patients now need heroin to function normally in society. After interviewing the man, the reporter goes on to say that even though he seems to function normally it is still obvious that the man is high on drugs. A definition of a drug is a medicine or other substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or introduced to the body. Someone couldn’t possibly act normal and be a regular contributor to society if they are physiologically impaired.

Vancouver isn’t treating the users addiction. They are just sustaining there addiction. In order to truly be treated the users would have to stop using and seeking heroin. The program is just sustaining the addiction.

Work Cited

“Vancouver Combats Heroin by Giving Its Addicts the Best Smack in the World.” Public Radio International. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-04/vancouver-combats-heroin-giving-its-addicts-best-smack-world&gt;.

“Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition).” What Is Drug Addiction Treatment? N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2015. <http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/frequently-asked-questions/what-drug-addiction-treatment&gt;.

Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sustain&gt;.

Apple devices are technologically efficient and user friendly, but it is not sold based on tech superiority to other brands. Apple is more focused on design. The products Apple Inc. makes are sold as fashion devices, a must have to be considered “up to date with this generation trend.”

In 1984 when the iMac was first introduced, the print ads used arty photos that made it look less like a machine and more like a museum piece. When Apple Inc introduced the iMac, it had three targets in mind: the loyal consumers, consumers using other PC and first time consumer buyers. For the first-time consumer buyers, Apple changed the method of advertising. Buying computer used to be based on processor power, functions and software packages, but it became more about which color the consumers wanted; they had commercial that categorized the product as choosing between “strawberry and grape.” other print ads “yum” and “iCandy.”

Fashion and consumers connection to machines have always been the goals for Apple. In 1999 after apple introduced five more colors to its iMac,  they created a commercial featuring the five colors spinning with the song of the Rolling Stone “She’s a rainbow.”  One of the Apple products that emphasized fashion was the iPod.

Steve Jobs mentioned that the sale of iPod “should also help introduce Windows users to Apple’s clever and stylish designs, like the use of the screen as keyboard or swiping on the screen to unlock, thus encouraging more users of phone with buttons to adopt the iPhone when it came out. The design on Apple computers like the 3D presentation of the apps made PC users to switch to Macintosh computers.” after the iPod, Jobs predictions were right. To our these days, Apple products like iPhones, Macbooks became a must have. Only one out of all my friends at Rowan University isn’t an iphone user.Another design that brought Apple much success was the iPad.

The iPad was a great innovation, combining the features from the iPhone and the Mac. The size was perfect for people that are mobile, it is useful for office work and can be used as a great tourist tool for like: pictures, recordings, music and many other things. But the latest of Apple product is the complete representation of Apple as a fashion brand, the Apple watch.

The Apple watch is set to be released early in 2015, it took three years of work by not only techies but also big fashion watch designers like: Marc Newson, Burberry’s Angela Ahrendts and Yves Saint Laurent’s Paul Deneve. This wearable device directly states that Apple might be an advance technology device, but it is also used as a fashion gadget.