Out more at the w dot com smart. Memory is a miraculous creation it lets us learn from the past and find paths into the future but its not a perfect storage device where the truth is concerned memories can be like quicksand false memories and distorted memories and exaggerated memories or going to simply put memory isnt really there for storing information. Memory isnt always a private matter often there are contradictory memories of one and the same event then its argued out in court which version of a story is correct. I own jordan as my witness testimony is importance of court cases. But a bad faulty memory in court can land innocent people behind bars i know how often and how common it is for people to have these kinds of errors in their memory a memory is needed in the witness box your memory will also be tested and tricked during this film how susceptible are our memories to manipulation what does that mean for trials and how can we spot when our recall is just plain wrong. One of the twentieth centurys most influential psychologists lives and works on the outskirts of los angeles nobody knows more about the tricks of memory than a lizabeth loftus she was able to prove over the course of many experiments that memories can change as a result of outside influences in fact they can even be completely revised she gave evidence as a witness in countless trials o. J. Simpson Michael Jackson and the war crimes trials following the post named conflict for getting in might be a good thing sometimes that if we can you know not dwell on our sadnesses. Maybe live a more optimistic happier life because we are thinking about things that are bringing us down forgetting can have a benefit but sometimes an every day moment only escapes from its normal in significance and becomes an issue of great interest after the fact it mustnt be lost an eye witnesses memory has one big enemy time. A great december day in scotland in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight a bomb exploded in an aircraft belonging to the American Airline panam the boeing crashed of the scottish town of lockerbie all two hundred fifty nine passengers lost their lives most of them americans falling debris killed another eleven people on the ground this attack was to preoccupy the scottish judicial system for a long time Elizabeth Loftus was called in to assist the first person to contact me about this case was. Very famous law professor from harvard who wanted my opinion about some eyewitness testimony in the case and when he first gave me materials about the case he actually blacked out the. Specifics only one man was convicted thirteen years after the attack loftus didnt get to speak in court at the time but in two thousand and thirteen she published a scholarly article that asked whether faulty memories put an innocent person in prison. Over and over again one eyewitness tony gouty a shop owner from mortar was questioned in a place like this one. His memory was milked until it delivered the results that was so important for the judicial machinery items of clothing discovered at the scene of the crime had let the investigators to go out cheese shop they had come from the suitcase containing the bomb. The shopkeeper was first interviewed about nine months afterwards but he just gave a description and he did not make any identification at that at that relatively early time. She confirmed in this first interrogation that he had sold items of clothing to a libyan man prior to the attack the customer hadnt been picky he bought every item suggested also got he said in his statement first he said the suspect was more than six feet tall he said the suspect was fifty years old on the. Tape he said it not me could remember a number of things this first unadulterated memory doesnt match the man who was later sentenced how is that possible by him with i but mrs actually lawing plays a minor role unless theyre somehow involved themselves and they try hard but still make mistakes amanda knox feel oh yes not every time we recall a memory it changes slightly its a bit like chinese whispers but youre playing it with yourself you often remember the last time you recalled the memory youll recall is itself a memory of the shop owner was constantly confronted with photographs of suspects years after the crime he finally pointed to the photograph of one man who looked very similar to his customer albeit ten years too young photo number eight depicted omega. He the head of security for Libyan Airlines at the time he said this number eight is similar he said he just said seller but it was and thats why at best you could call it a tentative identification by then photographs of on the ground he was already in the press. And if you know when it was covered a lot in the media so we run the risk of mixing in everything weve read and seen and heard so that there are no countless errors in our memory field thats quite different from your forgetting. As forgetful during a later line up the eyewitness may only have recognize the person from the photographs his memory linked to this face with his original recollection of the customer in his shop. It doesnt just leave an imprint in the mind and you play it back later but actually that the memory is malleable and it can be changed and altered transformed by no things no information that the witness is exposed to this became known as the misinformation of fact Elizabeth Loftus has proved this effect in countless scientific studies now you will be able to participate in one of these experiments youre going to become an eyewitness. Watch carefully and follow the instructions youre going to see three faces in succession remember these faces we will ask you to identify them later. Very good lets practice identifying this person think about whether you saw this person from the left or from the right. Only one picture is correct the left one or the right one. Again left or right. Now your an eye witness make a final choice do you remember the person on the left or on the right. Left is correct youre very likely to have know that. Once again do you recognize the person on the left or on the right youll know that two. The correct answer is the right time. What about these two left or right. The correct answer is right but around huff of you will have picked the wrong person this time why. What happen is that during that interval of time between the study and the test i messed with their memory i substituted a different face. Than the one was act that was actually shown it was similar but it was different and a completely novel face and asked them to choose and they picked the similar face but it was the wrong face so later on they stuck with that wrong face many of them. It was a demonstration where with a post of an activity that messes with their memory you can make people. It would be completely inaccurate had tossed him out and unfortunately we still treat witnesses in court as if they had computerized memories as if they were like a video tape that you can take off the shelf and play even three months later. And see the same thing come to us when its on course and. In the year two thousand and nine years off of the first i did for cation of the photograph tony couch he was asked in Court Whether he recognized his customer and therefore the alleged perpetrator. He said yes thats the guy by the time hes looking at a lineup and he makes an alive identification he hes more confident and i believe that confidence was expressed at trial and al mcgrath he was convicted this statement twelve years after the alleged encounter in a shop in malta played a crucial role in the guilty verdict im a gripe he was given a life sentence in two thousand and nine he was released on compassionate grounds because he had cancer he died three years later he protested his innocence until his death the crime was her effect two hundred fifty nine people were on the plane they died a level people were on the ground they died but it may be that all mcgraw he too should be added to that list of victims. Elizabeth loftus says dilemma is that she doesnt provide any evidence for a conviction her research only feeds doubt about the truth of a memory thats why shes often be called the patron saint of criminals. They call me all kinds of names i mean when when youre challenging somebody used to. Parish believes and and and even their livelihood. Some of them are going to get mad and mad theyre going to fight dirty theyre going to call you names and i guess you know that just goes with the territory. Max stella is one of germanys most distinguished her and six psychologists at the center for witness statement psychology in berlin he researches methods to assess the truth of witness statements stella has been called as an Expert Witness in countless sexual abuse trials he works in the public eye. Why doing two things have always satisfied me greatly and theres the criminal angle thats always like a crossword puzzle you want to find the right sounds thats intellectually exciting and stimulating when the second thing is that you can help the inquiry on to the correct course in these terrible situations and meaning you can help the right side get justice to earth when you look after him. In the ninetys his expert testimony during the trials of vollmer created an uproar these trials in the city of holmes concerned large scale child abuse stella found out that the childrens memories of the acts had no real basis in fact the case ended with all twenty five accused being acquitted of these trials were awful but they were also very instructive it was throw down on that the topic of suggestion attracted the attention of professionals and Advice Centers and expert opinion. The accusations had come about because of the very ten dishes questioning of the children in the Advice Centers over the course of the investigation the children incriminated more and more adults in their environment. And what very few people think about is that this mistake can go so far that you really believe you experienced something in the past that never happened and not gonna fall in the ninetys there was an increased push in. People rooms like this one to look for suppressed memories of abuse including among adults the idea was to uncover childhood traumas so patients could be healed. The are clear on who knows the explanation for recapturing a memory is that there was a traumatic event and the idea is that traumas on remembered that theyre not stored properly by have the know in fact when theyre just there and fragments but they can be brought together into a coherent whole written into a memory through therapy and go into a man known to them that working with memories is an important part of trauma therapy psycho therapist. Has been treating traumatized people for decades his work is often about ordering fragments of memory and skipped and quite a spectrum form who gains when theres a Broad Spectrum of approaches to identify fragmented broken film so that we can look at it in detail and take away the fear the path. Placed three causing we can look at these things in a diesel aerated way. Interim or in the past. If a memory of abuse appears all of a sudden nothings the same for anyone anymore and that includes the accused but what if its a false memory that the mind has created all on its own the case of door is one example weve changed the details of the case to protect all those involved coming here contacting the family contacted me after the accusations had been made. The father had been accused of abusing his daughter and gets hyped as there was talk of five or six incidents which went on until she was five and i saw kingston five the earliest case was before she was two on a changing table i need to change the daughter a Public Service employee had previously suffered from burnout and depression and had sought help. How to act on. She went to an alternative practitioner because she apparently didnt want the help of the police dont. Ya can use a copyist this therapy went on and thats when communications slowly got was cut one long question stopped. Cummins runs false memory germany she has advised around two hundred parents usually fathers who feel falsely accused by their children the childrens memories of abuse almost always come to light during therapy the phenomenon has been observed to around twenty five years starting in the United States therapists often cite Sigmund Freuds theories of suppressed childhood traumas what we then began to see as all these people coming out of this cycle therapy with these new found memories of years of her riffing abuse for the ninetys you know i know you have people were certainly going to therapy but a therapist had different ideas about what caused your problems it wasnt a history of sexual abuse that was the immediate explanation at earlier times maybe it was in the refrigerator mother the actual truth of a memory often plays no role in therapy. No not in my therapy sessions i often have the goal of making something bearable whether its true or not is second written into it may be important to patients but it could be that the patient says i dont know if its true or not in the hope of the best way i can live on is with this kind of memory good but that doesnt necessarily mean all rediscovered memories of sexual abuse are incorrect therapists are convinced that traumatic events can have a big influence on the way our memory works. And addition. Vague memories and the inability to remember the results of the crime theres a question isnt there any in direct consequence for us and that is used against you in trials when youre an adult. Who has. Important discovery or reckless suggestion the potentially huge number of underscored cases of abuse has made this question a hotly debated one and half you know me im not questioning the phenomenon in general its just that these memories come back differently from how theyre described in these cases they tend to come back quickly and completely the reader can a lot of i know colleagues who say they can tell if someone was abused or not after having seen them twice as long you have been human i dont know about that in your terms pock was an astute at all of the symptoms could have come about in a different way in that inch guns on. The trial of daughters father was abandoned the investigators said that some of the memories of abuse that she described in detail dated back to a period in very Early Childhood so early that Brain Research has ruled them out. Unless you are infantile Early Childhood. Or infantile and easier on means we say in empirical science not not we dont remember anything before where three or four of what ive. Talked but the woman in question maintains her memory is correct the family remains split. The parents are suffering dreadfully theyre getting older and they love their daughter they want things to go back to how they were she was a cheerful girl that cheerfulness is gone she suffered. How can a brain create complex and rich memories. The answer is quite positive with associations and imagination in negative has for Memory Research theres a classic test called day r. M. Named after the scientist disk ruediger a macdermott this test is about lists of words what list. Lets do this test here and now were about to read some words to you remember as many of the most possible bed rest awake tired dream a waking night blanket dozing slumbering snoring pillow. Yet we often fill gaps in with what we have experience with things that we didnt experience because we assumed it must have happened like that. Thats now were going to show you a list of words and want you to think about which ones youve just heard. Most of you will remember these five words but if you also remember the word sleep your brain tricked you that word wasnt on the list. M. Systematists via the test subjects choose these target words its here that. They were never on the list but they just assume they must be the missing end is a list of events and. The power of the imagination and the willingness to turn outside information into memories of our own who could be more susceptible to that than children in the autumn of two thousand was asked to comment on the case allowed for a girl who was six at the time her memories didnt change during therapy they had been manipulated in the Family Living room by her own well intentioned parents stella sees this case as a perfect example of how false memories are made. Versus Regional Court reached a terrible incorrect verdict and the Supreme Court had very strong words to say. On what happened in the case of little our lauer thats not her real name was living with her cousins who had fled with their mother from their alcoholic father when lauer and her cousins were found playing doctors and nurses lauers father had a terrible suspicion. He had the impression that more must have happened than just playing doctors you hear so much in the media about sexual abuse he decided with the help of the two mothers to systematically question all three of the children. To have. Max taylor was only called to the case later on he was allowed to view the file and when i called to my great surprise there was a diary in the file the adults had kept meticulous records of their interrogations lauras father had used the two women as secretaries for every evening he dictated what had been asked and answered and for art of lasting and for alarm. The diaries document in detail the efforts of the children to confirm the parents suspicion. Of the ounces started with a boy who had once seen a man in a playground who had pulled out his penis. The older boy said something about a lesson in school for divorce from the heat and. These interrogations went on for several months then little by little memories of abuse really did appear the focus here was on the father of the two boys who had been left alone after a family quarrel. So it went so far that the children gave very vivid descriptions of abuse all three Children Together or one child was made to abuse another and these three adults took the children out of their money and they put more and more ideas into their heads as these are these children werent lying in the traditional sense and they werent just parroting the words they had been given. As in for they developed false memories theyve really believed something happened and also at first was ashamed now there isnt an isolated case just like in germany there had been an increase in the number of false memories of child abuse in the United States when society finally woke up t