we have consistently won the case as it's been presented in court. we have consistently lost the case as it's been presented in the public realm on tv and elsewhere. >> you know what caught my attention, the debate is happening more and more, this exact idea that there is new science, in fact, the supreme court will hear a court this case about memory and eyewitness testimony, the first time they've reviewed this issue in 34 years. jennifer dysart is a psychologist. as she prepared testimony to give the georgia parole board, although in the end she was not called and joins me now from new york. thanks for joining us. good morning. >> good morning, my pleasure. >> you know, i found this whole situation fascinating as many people did around the world. let me ask as a starting point, in a situation where someone has potentially witnessed a crime what does affect their memories or perceptions? >> yes, there are two major categories of information that can influence a witness' reliability and their ability to provide accurate testimony. there is a whole host of things related to the crime itself and the witness' conditions and factors related to the police investigation that can influence reliability. >> presumably a stressful situation for the witness as well. they're witnessing something, witnessing a crime. does that affect their memory? >> yes, it does. research shows high degrees of stress in a situation do affect our ability to encode information and retain that information. so if any of your viewers have ever had to give a big talk or speech and have been nervous, they might realize after they've given their talk that they don't remember exactly what it is that they said so this is an example of how memory can be affected by stress and stressful circumstances. >> if someone witnessed a crime like that to take it a step further could their memories be contaminated somehow or conception be contaminated through the questions asked. >> yes, the questions that are asked and the procedures that are used in a case concern the influence and reliability. if witnesses are permitted to talk with one another prior to giving a statement to police, it is certainly possible their memory can be influenced by what the other people say. as an example police officers do not put multiple suspects together in a room to get them to figure out their story and get it straight. they separate them so that they can get the most accurate and honest report of what happened and so the same goes with eyewitnesses. eyewitness memory can be influenced by each other. >> and i don't know if it's possible to answer this question but do you have some idea of how often misidentification occurs? >> we have some bake idea about misidentification and how it occurs. we know from dna exoneration cases in the united states where individuals who were previously convicted of a crime have now been shown to be innocent of that crime through post-conviction dna testing. there are 273 of those cases now in the united states and we know that of those cases, approximately 75% of them included at least one eyewitness who made a mistake and misidentified the innocent person. >> wow. it's fascinating stuff, jennifer dysart. obviously there's a lot to take into consideration for everybody including their own memories on any given day so thanks so much for joining us. we appreciatist. >> it's my pleasure. >> thanks a lot. >> you're welcome. there's a major two-day meeting to launch a worldwide assault on lifestyle illness, heart disease, cancer, dykes. a lot think they only kill in affluent or rich countries but in fact as we learn they cause 60% of deaths worldwide. this is a trend. a bad one. and here's another trend as well. not totally unrelated. the red cross say there are more obese people in the world, 1.5 billion than people who are malnourished which stands at about a billion. that said there is a deadly lack of food in east africa, somalia, spilling over into kenya and ethiopia. president obama spoke at the u.n. and israel and palestinians got most of the attention but he said to focus on the famine. >> we must act on the belief that freedom from want is a basic human right. the united states has made it a focus of our engagement abroad to help people to feed themselves and today as drought and conflict have brought famine to the horn of africa, our conscience calls on us to act. >> i tell you, i can tell you from being there this summer the stories really stick with you. families like yours or mine are in a desperate position. the u.n. said 750,000 people are at risk of dying in the next few months unless they find more aid. if you want to help you can go to cnn.com/impact. well, coming up we were shocked by the death of michael jackson, shocked even more when we heard that his doctor might be to blame. i'll break down what we know and what we don't. that's next. sed paper. and we switched to fedex 'cause a lot of their packaging contains recycled materials. tell them what else fedex does. well we're now using more electric trucks and lower emission planes. we even offer a reusable envelope. now, can't we at least print on the back sides of used paper? 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[ male announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers ♪ bum, ba-da-bum, bum, bum, bum ♪ it's been 2 1/2 years since michael jackson died and his personal doctor, dr. conrad murray goes on trial for murder. he admitted he gave him a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep at home but says it wasn't the lethal amount that was found in jackson's blood. some attorneys believe the defense will argue jackson actually killed himself. lots of questions about this. but here's what we do know. the desperate 911 call comes from inside michael jackson's rented beverly hills mansion. it's just before 12:30 p.m., june 25th, 2009. >> he's pumping his chest but not responding to anything. >> reporter: the king of pop's heart had stopped and his personal physician, dr. conrad murray, is attempting cpr. jackson's bodyguard is on with the emergency call center. >> did anybody witness what happened? >> no, just the doctor, sir. the doctor's been the only one here. >> did the doctor see what happened. >> okay, did you see what happened. >> if you can please. >> we're on our way. >> cnn breaking news. >> we're getting some breaking news coming into "the situation room" from about -- about michael jackson. the king of pop. >> my brother, the legendary king of pop passed away at 2:26 p.m. >> in the midst of the shock and the sorrow, the investigation comes to focus on dr. murray. the day after jackson dies police announce they've impounded murray's car from the singer's mansion in search of prescription medications that could be "pertinent to the investigation." a registered nurse tells cnn, jackson had insomnia and had asked her for diprivan a powerful sedative known as propofol. >> i said michael if you take that medicine, you might not wake up. >> it's usually administered through an i.v. drip and doesn't take too much to stop your breathing. you have to monitor a patient closely. use at home is extremely unusual. >> it's a medication you use all the time. is this it right over here. >> yes. >> it looks -- milk of amnesia they call it. >> reporter: seven weeks later dr. murray releases this online video. >> i have done all i could do. i told the truth and i have faith the truth will prevail. >> reporter: the l.a. county corps kn coroner concludes he died from an overdose of propofol. he says he tried other drugs but the pop star demanded pope foley to help him sleep so at 10:40 in the morning he gave him 25 milligram, less than two hours later came the call to 911. i'll be reporting from dr. murray's trial in los angeles. that's beginning tuesday. you can also follow along on my live stream, cnn.com/sanjay. see highlights next weekend on smgd. next up, shannon miller, she won a lot of fans in the 1996 olympics. my heart went out to her when i heard she had cancer but she's here joining us right after the break. prescription strength rf from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®. ♪ this ason, you needtruck le e silvera to take on that list oyours. t'chevy season of ding. and there isn a tt time for a truck, with chk rk after mark of pe doing per. ♪ go yor chevaler today. get the truck and g that list done ♪ shannon miller, she was the darling of the 1996 olympic games right here in atlanta. you may remember she helped the u.s. gymnastics team to a gold medal and won two more goals for herself. she runs and ed kids a health website and has a foundation to fight childhood obesity and has a 1-year-old son rocco but she almost lost all of this last year when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. first of all, i should welcome back to atlanta. >> thank you. >> '96. obviously everyone remembers you. you can see the picture behind you. how has life been in general. >> it's been amazing. definitely been a roller-coaster ride just like in my gymnastics career, i too to enjoy every moment. >> as an athlete you're very aware of your body. aware of any illnesses. had you ever been sick, you know, over the last, you know, 30 years. >> really i had not. in my gymnastics career i had a broken elbow, some pulled muscles here and there but as far as sickness, i didn't one day of workout. my coach always boasts about that even if i had a minor cold, i didn't miss a workout over a 15-year span so i hadn't dealt with that much sickness. >> did you have an idea when you got diagnosed, did you have any inkling before hand. >> absolutely nothing. i was in tune with my body. i was about a year out of having my son so 12, 13 months after having him and i was going in for a regular exam. i had no symptoms of any kind, in fact, i almost put off my exam and ended up not doing that. >> what happened? did you get a call or how did this all transpire? >> i called my doctor to actually reschedule my exam and then i thought about those patients and doctors that i had interviewed and they said don't ever put off your exam so i took the first available which was that morning and that's when they found seven-centimeter basal 5 cyst on my ovary. i didn't know what it was when i was put under for surgery. i didn't know what i was going to wake up. it's benign. you have to have a hysterectomy, you'll never have children again or it spread so that was the most difficult thing for me so it wasn't until i woke up from surgery that i found out it was a malignant tumor. >> what goes through your head? someone who has been an athlete when they tell you, you've never been sick, thinking about your mortality. >> i think first i thought about mortality. i thought about my son and i just -- i just had him. i'm just getting to know him. he's just beginning to have a personality. i can't be gone and wait a second, why me, why now? i've tried to live a healthy lifestyle. it's my passion. it's what i do and now you're telling me i have cancer? so you go through that then when i realized i had to go through chemotherapy, it was, okay, game plan, i switched into athlete mode, i've got a goal, nine weeks of chemotherapy and i've got to get my game plan in place. >> did they tell you at some point, look, here's what we think will happen if you don't get chemo? >> they originally thought it was solved through surgery and said it was a higher grade than they originally felt and chemo was really the way to go. three out of four doctors say this is the way to go, 99% chance of no reoccurrence and don't have to deal with it. i'm thinking while i'm looking at my son, 99% with something called cancer, i can did that. >> is that the assurance still now that, you know -- i mean 99%, they say, you know, you don't have to worry about this again in your life. is that what they're saying to you. >> pretty much. they're saying i'm in that 90% to 100% success rate and certainly they'll watch me coastly over the next two years and one of the most difficult things i'm supposed to wait a year before trying to have kids again and that's difficult. but it's doable. i could definitely do that. >> rocco needs a little sibling? >> that's right. >> you mentioned that you had no idea why you you had no idea why you got this and didn't even know you had it until a routine exam. is there a lesson for other women watching regarding ovarian cancer? >> the lesson is for women to put their health as a priority. we need to take care of everyone else. i need to be around for rocco so i need to go to the doctor. i would tell women do not delay, do not reschedule. early detection saves lives. >> i'm glad you didn't wait. you look fantastic. >> thank you. >> and i remember the hat. i don't know if that means we're getting older. but you look great there and look great now. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> you remember that as well? she really is adorable. i'm glad to see her looking so well. shannon miller. do you ever wonder why shopping is so exhausting? you see, making dyss what to buy and resisting all those temptations, truth is it's going to wear anybody down. science now problems it. how to avoid decision fatigue up next. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? 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[ female announcer ] one a day women's. making good decisions. that's what we call want to do, right? but sometimes it's hard. in fact, mental effort actually can take a physical toll. what's more fascinating about that statement is that this entire process can now be pressured in a lab. i learned this from a new book called "will power," and john tierney joins me from new york. for starters, john you talk about the fact that will power is like a muscle. i think that concept is really interesting. i mean, if it's like a muscle, does this mean you can strengthen your will power? >> yes, you can. also like a muscle, it gets fatigued as you use it and go through the day using it. it also gets built up over time by exercises by doing things that strengthen your will power. my co-author roy bauer meister did studies if you ask students to work on their posture for a week, then when they came back to the lab, they could do other tasks measuring self-control much better. even though that had nothing to do with posture. it was being able to have more self-control. >> as you said that, i sat up straighter, just so you know. i'm going to be putting it to use. so it's something you can strengthen but also something that fatigues. what's an example of fatiguing then? >> well, simply resisting temptations. one of the classic experiments that roy did was they brought these college students into a lab, and on the table there, there was a dish of radishes and a dish of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies that you could smell. some of the poor students were in what was called the radish condition. they could only eat the radishes. so they had to sit there. the researchers observed them through the one-way mirror looking and they were looking agonizing. they were hungry. they had skipped a meal. they had to resist the chocolate chip cookies. they did manage to resist, but afterwards, they were tested for self-control. they were given these math puzzles to work on that couldn't be solved and the test was how long would they work at it. the kids who ate the chocolate chip cookies could work on the puzzles for about 20 minutes but the ones who had been staring at the cookies and could only eat the radishes, they gave up after eight minutes. that's a huge difference by experimental standards. that's been demonstrated over and over again, when you use will power torre sis temptation and use a decision draws on ta same source of mental energy. during the day, by the time you've made a lot of decisions during the day, by the time you've resisted eatingders sert at lunch, snapping back at your boss, by the end of the day, you're suffering from this condition named ego depletion. have you less will power and so you're less able to resist temptations and less able to make good decisions at that point. >> the let me ask you about that chocolate chip, radish experiment. as you're talking, i'm imagining myself going through an experiment like this. if i ate chocolate chip cookies, i did not have to expend my will power or resist temptation and i can as you say work at these puzzles better, could there be other explanations as to why that is, the cookies providing more energy or just the sugar? could that have fueled some of that? >> the will power is fueled by glucose in the blood stream. so there is a factor that food plays a factor. >> do you do things differently in your own life as a result of all this. >> i have a program on my computer that keeps track of which web sites i use and which programs i use. at the end of the week it sends me an e-mail how many hours were you spending productivetively on stuff you want to be doing and how much time did you spend surfing tmz say. >> outcoursing self-control 0 someone else, some people can do it. you can set it up so it will send e-mails of your work habits to your boss or to your spouse or to a friend that you designate. that's a way of outsourcing self-control beyond yourself and can being the will power that you have. >> i can almost assure you i will never buy that began jet. let me ask you quickly, you have a son. i have three young children. is this something that you can teach? >> yes, it's definitely something that kids need to learn from their parents, and the way they learn it is by being given clear goals and by being given quick reinforcement, either rewards for achieving goals and punishments for not achieving them. it's important that trn be consistent and that it happen quickly. and it takes a lot of self-control and will power for parents to do that. it's much easier to let your kids get away with something, if they leave a mess, it's often easier to clean it up than bring them back to the kitchen and say clean it up. that's why parents with good self-control tend to have parents with good self-control. it's the fact they're in a home where parents enforce rules and kids learn to acquire the self-discipline. that turns out to be the most important predictor, even better than iq at predicting school performance. self-control is that important. it predicts success in virtually area of life. the book is called "will power, rediscovering the greatest human strength." that was informative and very, very helpful. thank you for joining us. >> that's going to wrap things up for sjmd. i'm headed to los angeles to cover the conrad murray trial getting under way on tuesday. you can follow on cnn.com/sanjay. see highlights next weekend.