Unconscious transference is a memory error that occurs when an eyewitness to a crime misidentifies a familiar but innocent person from a police lineup.
An unconscious transference error may occur if the wit- ness believes that the perpetrator and the innocent by- stander are the same person. This could happen if the two people are seen sequentially, if they resemble one another sufficiently, and if face processing was insufficient to dis- tinguish between them.
This can be done by telling witnesses just prior to making a lineup identification that the familiar foil and the criminal are not the same person, or by presenting a lineup that contains the familiar foil and the criminal.
The post-identification feed- back effect, originally demonstrated by Wells and Bradfield (1998), refers to the way in which witness self-reports are distorted by feedback to the witnesses that suggests that their identifications were accurate or mistaken.
Studies have shown that mistaken eyewitness testimony accounts for about half of all wrongful convictions. Researchers at Ohio State University examined hundreds of wrongful convictions and determined that roughly 52 percent of the errors resulted from eyewitness mistakes.
Inconsistent Statements
If the witness said inconsistent things, then logically one of the statements must be false. And this means either that the witness is lying on the stand or that the witness must admit having lied in the past, which undermines her credibility generally.
For example, an eyewitness might falsely recall that a person involved in an accident passed a 'stop' sign rather than a 'yield' sign but nonetheless accurately recall that one person travelling at a dangerous speed caused the accident.
Unconscious transference occurs when an eyewitness to a crime misidentifies a familiar but innocent person from a police lineup.
The misinformation effect is a term used in the cognitive psychological literature to describe both experimental and real-world instances in which misleading information is incorporated into an account of an historical event.
The cognitive interview (CI) is a method of interviewing eyewitnesses and victims about what they remember from a crime scene. Using four retrievals, the primary focus of the cognitive interview is to make witnesses and victims of a situation aware of all the events that transpired.
Transference is a psychology term used to describe a phenomenon in which an individual redirects emotions and feelings, often unconsciously, from one person to another.
Although there's no way to eliminate the biases hardwired into our brains, we can take steps to mitigate their effects. Much of this progress depends on learning. The more aware we are of our biases, the less likely we are to act on them or let them control us.
Transference usually happens because of behavioral patterns created within a childhood relationship. Seeing the therapist as a father figure who is powerful, wise, authoritative, and protecting. This may evoke feelings of admiration or agitation, depending on the relationship the client had with their father.
Examples of unconscious responses include priming, which occurs when the exposure to one stimulus impacts the way a person reacts to a different stimulus; autonomic skill acquisition, or developing automatic skills; and reflexes, or involuntary physical responses to stimuli.
Definition/Introduction
Confabulation is a neuropsychiatric disorder wherein a patient generates a false memory without the intention of deceit.
false memory syndrome, also called recovered memory, pseudomemory, and memory distortion, the experience, usually in the context of adult psychotherapy, of seeming to remember events that never actually occurred.
misidentification of an innocent person who is familiar from a different context. another individual. 'unconscious transference' may sometimes be an instance of 'change blindness'.
Psychologists believe that the unconscious mind stores all the memories and experiences that are not being consciously thought about. Some of these memories are easy to recall. For example, you can probably remember what you had for dinner last night. Can you remember what you did on your last birthday?
Misinformation Effect Example
Researchers discovered that using the word "smashed" instead of "hit" could change how the participants remembered the accident. A week later, the participants were once again asked a series of questions, including "Did you see broken glass?" Most of the participants correctly answered no.
Examples of the Misinformation Effect
When asked the question, 'How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?' the answer typically involved a higher rate of speed than when the question was phrased, 'How fast were the cars going when they bumped into each other?'
The misinformation effect is also important in more mundane circumstances, such as people's personal histories. For example, I have a memory from when I was three years old of playing in a sandpit. I don't remember much else about it other than this sandpit was outside the building in which I lived.
An attorney can show jurors a witness is not credible by showing: 1) inconsistent statements, 2) reputation for untruthfulness, 3) defects in perception, 4) prior convictions that show dishonesty or untruthfulness, and 5) bias.