[Wittrs] Re: Language games
- From: brendan downs <downs_brendan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:11:42 +1000
Many of the early studies of memory (e.g. Bartlett 1932) demonstrate how
memories are not accurate records of our experiences. It seems that we try to
fit past events into our existing representations of the world, making the
memory more coherent or make more sense for us. For example a schema is a
picture we carry in our minds to describe a certain environment. If you were
asked to describe a restaurant, you would think of tables, chairs, plates, etc.
Because of this, it is possible for people to ask a leading question to try and
manipulate our memory, and thus reinforce their case. Elizabeth Loftus is a
leading figure in the field of eyewitness testimony research. She has
demonstrated through the use of leading questions how it is possible to distort
a person's memory of an event. For example if you showed a person a picture of
a child's room that contained no teddy bear, and then asked them, "Did you see
a teddy bear?" you are not implying that there was one in the room an
d the person is free to answer. However if you ask, "Did you see the teddy
bear?" it implies that one was in the room and the person is more likely to
answer "yes", as the presence of a teddy bear is consistent with that person's
schema of a child's room
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