Description

Gain insights into eye witness memory problems, false memories, impact of stress and trauma on memory, and examine wrongful conviction cases. In this course, psychologist Eve Ash talks to Distinguished Professor Elizabeth Loftus, University of California, Irvine, an expert on human memory, psychology and law. Elizabeth has conducted research on the malleability of human memory and has been called upon worldwide to give expert testimony in criminal cases. Eyewitness testimony can cause problems in courts. The more confident a witness, the more they are believed even if their memories are mistaken, such as in the case of Steven Titus (misidentified as a rapist). A US Innocence Project found that in over 300 cases of wrongful conviction, 75% were due to faulty or false memories. The problem is compounded when witnesses are ‘coached’ or ‘encouraged’. False and distorted memories can be ‘implanted’.