Monday 9 March 2015

Planting false memories fairly easy, psychologists find

Chris Ochoa, shown outside the State Capitol in Madison, Wisc., in March 2013, served 12 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. Ochoa had confessed to the crime after two 12-hour sessions of Reid-style interrogation.

A new study proves for the first time what psychologists have long suspected: that manipulative questioning tactics used by police can induce false memories — and produce false confessions.

Published in January in the journal Psychological Science by Julia Shaw of Britain’s University of Bedfordshire and Stephen Porter, a forensic psychologist who studies the role of memory in the legal system at the University of British Columbia, the study holds striking implications for the justice system….


thestar.com/news/insight/2015/02/08


PHOTO: KEVIN HARNACK/WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL