The Processes and Systems of Human Memory - And How They Can Impact Any Criminal Trial

Many criminal cases involve eyewitnesses or other fact witnesses who provide important testimony based on their memory for relevant events.  While expert witnesses may be called in certain types of cases to discuss the reliability of memory decisions (eyewitness identifications, delayed outcries, etc), typically the dynamics of human memory are only described in the vaguest of terms. This course provides a thorough introduction to the systems and processes of human memories, with an eye toward how they could be important in any case involving memory-based testimony.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the three systems and processes of human memory

2. Examine how these systems and processes integrate into the Atkinson and Shiffrin model of human memory

3. Review that the limitations of these systems and processes make all human memories unreliable reconstructions

4. Discuss how these findings apply to a sample criminal case