STORY: "Police interrogation tactics can plant false memories, UBC study finds: Study participants remembered elaborate details of crimes they hadn't committed," published by CBC News on November 19, 2015.
PHOTO CAPTION: "The interviewers in the study
used common police interrogation techniques to convince many
participating undergraduate students that they had committed a crime
when they were younger."
"Many of the interrogation tactics used by police forces in Canada can make suspects falsely believe they committed the crimes they are accused of, suggests new research from the University of B.C. Okanagan. The research study involved 60 undergraduate students who were asked to recall two different memories — a true memory that was provided by their parents, and a false memory of a criminal or violent activity they had done when they were younger. The interviewers asked the participants about the memories, using the same persuasive tactics used in Canadian police interrogations, and by the end of three separate hour-long interview sessions more than 70 per cent of the participants thought the fake memory they had been asked to recall had actually happened. "[They] came to believe and endorse that they had engaged in this kind of criminal behaviour, which ranged from assaults to assault with a weapon to serious thefts," said Stephen Porter, a psychology professor who co-authored the study published in the Psychological Science journal. The participants were so convinced that they'd actually committed these crimes that they even gave "extremely rich accounts" of what they believed had happened. "They were reporting extensive detail about getting arrested, what had happened, going to jail, their parents picking them up eventually, and to the point that they experienced significant guilt for these wrongdoings that they in fact hadn't committed," he said......"We used tactics that are very very common in the Canadian interrogation room, for example, offering, what police call incontrovertible evidence … in this case we said, 'Your parents had informed us that you did this crime and you were arrested.' In real life police would say, 'You failed a polygraph' or 'We have this kind of evidence or that kind of evidence.'"
"Many of the interrogation tactics used by police forces in Canada can make suspects falsely believe they committed the crimes they are accused of, suggests new research from the University of B.C. Okanagan. The research study involved 60 undergraduate students who were asked to recall two different memories — a true memory that was provided by their parents, and a false memory of a criminal or violent activity they had done when they were younger. The interviewers asked the participants about the memories, using the same persuasive tactics used in Canadian police interrogations, and by the end of three separate hour-long interview sessions more than 70 per cent of the participants thought the fake memory they had been asked to recall had actually happened. "[They] came to believe and endorse that they had engaged in this kind of criminal behaviour, which ranged from assaults to assault with a weapon to serious thefts," said Stephen Porter, a psychology professor who co-authored the study published in the Psychological Science journal. The participants were so convinced that they'd actually committed these crimes that they even gave "extremely rich accounts" of what they believed had happened. "They were reporting extensive detail about getting arrested, what had happened, going to jail, their parents picking them up eventually, and to the point that they experienced significant guilt for these wrongdoings that they in fact hadn't committed," he said......"We used tactics that are very very common in the Canadian interrogation room, for example, offering, what police call incontrovertible evidence … in this case we said, 'Your parents had informed us that you did this crime and you were arrested.' In real life police would say, 'You failed a polygraph' or 'We have this kind of evidence or that kind of evidence.'"
The entire story with a link to the audio interview can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com; Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
