False memories and interrogation strategies have become an ethical debate in our courtrooms. There have been many instances of innocent people pleading guilty to a crime they haven’t committed. This has led researchers to conduct experiments that will hopefully change the way detectives question suspects.

In one study 30 students with a clear criminal background volunteered to be apart of a psychological experiment. The researchers started by gathering information from the students families. Then the researchers told the students individually a story containing one fact and one piece of false information about the students past. For half of the students the false information was a crime they committed. For the other half the false information was an emotional event. The researchers then asked the students to explain the event in detail. By the end of the experiment the researchers were surprised to find that 71% of the students whose false event was crime had created a false memory of committing that crime.(Guy,2015) Of the students who were told an emotional event 77% had created a false memory.(Guy, 2015)

These statistics are very scary, it shows how easy it is to implant false memories. These studies were believing that they committed crimes within a few hours. These students did were not threatened or did not have any scare tactics used on them. It is not uncommon for detectives to use tactics similar to this experiment. Officers have tactics that involve true facts and false information about evidence.

In one situation a 17 year old man woke up to find his mother stabbed to death and his father unconscious. When the police arrived the man was in shock, the officers found it suspicious that he was the only family unharmed.  He was put through a 5 hour interrogation were detectives made suggestions about the crime. So of which included telling the man that his father saw him murder his mother. After the interrogation the man began to question himself and not to long after confessed to the crime. He spent 17 years in prison until the real criminal was found.

In conclusion false memory tactics are very complex and using these techniques should be used with caution. Law enforcement should have regulations on these types of tactics. Possibly if a trained mental health worker is present in the interrogation. Moreover there have been so many occurrences that there are now organizations created to help victims of wrongful conviction. some of these organizations include The Innocence Project, AIDWYC, and Center for Wrongful Convictions.

Association In Defense of the Wrongfully Accused. Retrieved November 19, 2016, from http://www.seekingjusticefortheinnocent.com/index.php/resources/resources-list/resources-non-profit-organizations/182-385930078

Guy, F. (2015, October 15). Implanting False Memories Of Crime | Crime Traveller. Retrieved November 19, 2016, from http://www.crimetraveller.org/2015/10/implanting-false-memories-of-crime/

Alzheimer’s research has been in the spotlight for many years. This may be  because our society has a fear of the symptoms associated with this disease. The main symptom is dementia, or memory loss that can hinder daily life.  Fortunately researchers are making progress in the search for a cure.

I have witnessed the transformation that one experiences when suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.My aunt lived in California for most of her life but once she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease she became very fearful of her future. She flew thousands of miles to country that conducts Alzheimer’s treatments that are controversial in the United States. She was fortunate enough to be able to do this once a month. I was able to see a short term improvement, after a few weeks she needed more treatment.This treatment was not a cure, it seemed to temporarily improve her short term memory.  However after years of suffering from the disease she eventually passed.

For that reason memory has been my favorite topic throughout our studies. Learning about STM  and encoding was very interesting to me. At the time I did not understand STM and encoding. I have since learned that short term memory is the present time period. It is what we need to continue an activity in the present.  Someone with Alzheimer’s Disease will have difficulty continuing a conversation, or reading a book. They may even drift off into a different time period, recalling from LTM.

I was able to find an experiment on Scientific Amercican.com (Sara Reardon,2016) that appeared to explain STM encoding in mice with amnesia similar to Alzheimer patients. Neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa and his team at MIT recently found, that in certain types of amnesia the memories can not be recalled, but have been stored. This theory was tested on mice with mutations that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Mice with these mutations form plaque in their brain that leads to memory loss. This is very similar to what happens in humans with Alzheimer’s disease. In the experiment mice were placed a box where they were presented with an electric shock. These mice did not become fearful of the box because they did not remember the event. These mice were unable to create short term memories. The researchers were able to create a light-sensitive protein in the neurons of the hippocampus.  The mice were placed in the box without an electric shock and a light was shining on them. This caused the neurons to fire, then the mice froze in fear. It appears that the mice had encoded the memories but were unable to retrieve them.By the next day the mice had forgotten.

Overall there has not been a cure to Alzheimer’s Disease but researchers around the world seem to be unlocking pieces to the puzzle. Currently there are medications and lifestyle changes that can help with symptoms.

Reardon, S., & Magazine, N. (2016, March 17). Memories Retrieved in Mutant “Alzheimer’s” Mice. Retrieved October 12, 2016, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/memories-retrieved-in-mutant-alzheimer-s-mice/