Unit 7, Lesson 7.3, Exercise A≤2.5 1 trau'matic 2 'thalamus 3 re'trieval 4 re'pression 5 'cortex 6 re'hearsal 7 en'coding 8 hippo'campus 9 dis'placement
10 'maintenance 11 de'cay 12 'sensory
Unit 7, Lesson 7.3, Exercise B≤2.6
Part 5 I’m going to finish with some comments on how memory can be flawed – in other words, I’m going to talk about memory distortion.
Now, the fact of the matter is, it’s very easy to
confuse the memory. The reason for this is that it depends on so many factors – not to mention the fact that most of these are unconscious. First, let’s take a look at the effect of preconceived ideas on our memory; these make us believe we remember certain things because of what we expect to see in certain situations. For instance, we might think we remember an old woman wearing glasses just because we expect elderly people to have poor eyesight. Plus there’s the fact that when we recall a memory, we are affected by the emotions we felt at the time of the original event.
OK. Where was I? Oh, yes … So memory distortion
means remembering things inaccurately, depending on what we expect to remember, and how we feel about what we remember. For example, children of the same family will remember their parents’ personalities differently; their kindness, their anger, their sense of humour, etc.
You’ve probably heard of hypnosis being used
to help witnesses remember the details of crimes. It was Freud who claimed that hypnosis was an effective method for accessing repressed memories. The advantage of hypnosis is that it can remind people of the feelings they had at the time they witnessed the event. And, as we know, strong emotions make it easier to remember past events. What hypnosis can do is help eyewitnesses return to the moment of a traumatic event and see it again
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‘in the mind’s eye’. However, there are still serious doubts about the reliability of this information.
To sum up, then, hypnosis – as a method for
memory recall – must be used with caution. Let me put it another way … hypnosis is not always a very reliable method for retrieving lost memories.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention your research
topics. OK, well, what’s very important is a full understanding of the use of hypnosis as a means of accessing memory, and an appreciation of its disadvantages as well as its benefits. So I’d like you to investigate the drawbacks of using hypnosis to recall traumatic events.
Unit 7, Lesson 7.4, Exercise B≤2.7
Extract 1 Now, as we know, some people claim that hypnosis helps people remember details of events they had previously forgotten. A case in point is eyewitnesses in criminal investigations. But research has shown that the details people ‘remember’ under hypnosis are not always accurate. I asked you to look into the disadvantages of using hypnosis to remember the details of past events. For example, how is the memory affected by the way the hypnotist asks questions? How does the imagination of the person being interviewed distort their recollection of events? In effect, can hypnosis be effective in producing reliable testimony? So, let’s have some views.
Unit 7, Lesson 7.4, Exercises C and D≤2.8
Extract 2 JACK:Well. I’d like to make two points. First, hypnosis affects different people in different ways. LEILA: Can you expand on that, Jack?
JACK: Sure, Leila. Some people are more suggestible than others. LEILA: So?
JACK: So the point is that in some cases, the person being hypnotised may ‘remember’ things the hypnotist suggests by asking questions in a particular way. Different questions might result in different memories. So, in criminal cases, the evidence of people under hypnosis wouldn’t be reliable.
LECTURER: OK. So, what’s your second point, Jack?
JACK: I was coming to that! My second point is that people often imagine they’ve seen certain things because that’s what they expect to see.
LEILA: Yes, but you have to admit there are lots of
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