The Unreliability of Memory

The mind is a powerful thing. Police officials use to seek eyewitness accounts as they could prove to be the end all be all of solving a crime. What people don’t account for is that the mind can be so powerful that it may lead you to believe things that never happened. The vividness created by unreliable events that one encounters have pushed police officials to not rely so heavily on these accounts strongly in court. Watching Andy Blubaugh’s short film we can see how the mind can trick you into believing the wrong things.

Andy had lived a relatively quiet life. One night he had gotten himself into a mess. Andy had found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time, as he got jumped by a group of kids. The events were so traumatic for Andy that he only recalled a single black kid from the event. This memory led Andy to believe he was attacked by a group of black kids, but in truth it was a very diverse group that attacked him.

Andy focusing on the black kid led him to fear every black man he encountered. Fortunately, Andy realized what he was doing was racist. Andy would overcome the trick that his mind played on him, but this brings up how reliable our minds can really be especially during high pressure situations. An article by Bruno Verschuere, Ewout Meijer & Aldert Vrij titled “Increasing pressure does not benefit lie detection: a reply to Ten Brinke et al. (2015)” talks about the misinterpretation of law enforcement officials who interrogate people into confessing or giving details whilst under pressure filled environments.

The truth is that the mind can focus on single points when placed under stress to recall, so you may get a very strong piece of detail but fail to see the bigger picture. That is why eyewitness accounts have also come into scrutiny especially in court. One can not be convicted on eye witness accounts because every person has their own perspective.

The bigger picture is actually better and is what officials are aiming towards now instead of rough interrogations. The bigger picture is gathered through an interrogation process that provides a safe environment which then encourages the person to give more details. The more details the person gives the easier it is to determine whether they are lying or not.