EPS 56: Implanted Memories, False Memories, and False Confessions

Welcome to Spark My Muse.

Today my guest is
Dr Stephen Porter who is the Founding Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science & Law at the University of British Columbia and he is a Registered Forensic Psychologist.

Click on image to visit Dr Porter's website

Dr Stephen Porter

I know you will really enjoy this episode.
You’ve been a big help. 

Leave a ONE-TIME gift HERE. Thank you.

springsacred



SHOWNOTES
(Scroll down to find links, highlights, and details from the show)

MIN 1
Dr Porter started his career among the prison population in the field of forensic psychology.

His two main topics of research in the last 15 years: The nature and fallibility of memory (false memories) and deception detection.

He wanted do study memory empirically and he set up the Centre.

MIN 3:30

Why would somebody ever confess to a crime they haven’t done?

1,000 years of judicial systems have held the assumption that a confession of guilt is to be believed unless the person is deranged or they have been tortured.

In the last 30 years we now know this to be very false.

MIN 5:00
Studying people who believe they have actually committed a crime (and have a false memory of the crime) when they haven’t down any such thing.

Elizabeth Loftus – Implanted Memory studies (click for info)

Lost in the shopping mall studies (25% could be convinced of and falsely remember this frightening childhood event that never happened to them).

Julia Shaw (click for info)

70% of study participants were implanted with memories. They were convinced and falsely remembered committing a serious crime when they were teenagers in just 3 interviews for an hour each.

MIN 8:00

Events we remember are slightly or majorly different from the last time we recalled it.

A true memory is recalled almost exactly the same way in the brain as a false memory.

The systemic issue in the criminal justice system arises when a lot of time has elapsed and also when interrogators can and are allowed to ask [questions] in very inappropriate ways that really mess with a person’s memories.

MIN 12

The implanting of memories studies.

The 1990s “repressed memory era”

MIN 14

The role of emotion, negative events, and authority figures in implanted memories.

MIN 19

The Innocence Project

In 25% of wrongful convictions the accused confessed to the crime.

In 63% of wrongful murder convictions, the accused confessed to the crime.

MIN 23:30

The 3 major types of false confessions.

MIN 28

The details within the false memories are analogous to real memories.

MIN 30: Psychopathic people who implant memories and destroy reality for their victims.

MIN 34:30

The surprising ways the experts detect deception –
What to look for in a liar. (It is not what you’ve heard.)

To access this bonus material GO HERE – support Spark My Muse.

• Visit Dr Porter’s website HERE


 Did you enjoy the episode?
Try another!

Please leave a review on iTunes and pick a subscribe option.

EPS 48: Free Will, Luck, and Psychopaths- Guest Diana Hsieh

Spark My Muse releases two audio episodes per week. 
WEDNESDAYS are SOUL SCHOOL episodes ( power-packed short episodes for everyday life. )

FRIDAYS are conversational interview style episodes with guests from a wide variety of backgrounds on interesting topics to get you thinking.


Today we are talking about control: Free will, luck (chance), and the power of nature versus nurture in how things in life turn out for us when it comes to these sorts of things. If you enjoy the show, share it with someone, or write a review on iTunes!

Today’s guest is Diana Hsieh, PhD in Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder

© Mark Stevens 2010
© Mark Stevens 2010

SHOW NOTES

MIN 6:30

Aristotle’s Ethics

What control in life entails.

MIN 8:00

The power to do something or not do something.

The conditions for moral responsibility and the knowledge of what we are doing.

MIN 10

Psychopaths and DNA. Nature, nurture, and moral responsibility.

James Fallon. Smithsonian Magazine article.

MIN 12:30

Environmental conditions and choice.

Maybe nature and nurture is a false dichotomy.

Blaming people who are raised in tough circumstances and keeping people accountable for their choices too because they know the consequences.

MIN 16:30

Common sense view that you reach an age where you know better.

MIN 18

Self knowledge is powerful. We all have tendencies we have to overcome.

MIN 19

In character building it help when we understand what we have control over and what we don’t.

Know what alternatives there are.

MIN 22

In defense of praise and blame. (How we can improve and be morally responsible.)

MIN 23

Make progress as best as you can.

MIN 24

Is morality relative? Whose morality is right?* (see my note below)

MIN 26

Looking at the practical effects of morality.

Value-based morality.

MIN 28

philosophyinaction.com

philosophyinaction.com/moralluck


*my note: This line of inquiry poses something interesting about a common worldview (though largely an unconscious one) in American culture and it is a discourse quite popular in some circles also about “culturally relative morality” vs. morality sourced and referenced in a Creator who is objectively good and perfect. C.S. Lewis reflects on this in his book “Mere Christianity”. If you are interested in commenting about this in any way, you can do so at the FACEBOOK group PAGE here.