Ratuja Donna And Pascal Are Three Friends Out Shopping
Ratuja Donna And Pascal Are Three Friends Out Shopping At A Local Ma
Ratuja, Donna, and Pascal are three friends out shopping at a local mall. Ratuja and Donna are in a jewelry store when a robbery suddenly occurs. Glass is heard shattering and an alarm starts sounding. A panicked and hooded figure runs out of the store with a handful of rings and necklaces. Once outside, the criminal pauses to look for an escape route, and then darts off towards the nearest exit.
Security arrives and gathers a few witnesses to get information on the hooded criminal. Ratuja, Pascal, and Donna are among the witnesses brought in for questioning. All the witnesses are questioned at the security station across the way from the jewelry store that was robbed.
Paper For Above instruction
In analyzing the reliability of Ratuja, Donna, and Pascal as witnesses based on their recollections of the jewelry store robbery, it is essential to consider various memory factors rooted in cognitive psychology, particularly the concepts of depth of processing, encoding specificity, and retrieval cues. These factors influence how well individuals encode and retrieve episodic memories of such high-stress events.
Ratuja's Memory Factors
Ratuja was in a different section of the store from where the crime occurred, which likely limited her encoding specificity regarding the crime scene details. Since she did not witness the act directly and was conversing with others, her memory of the event may rely heavily on secondhand information rather than her direct experience. Additionally, her knowledge from crime shows might introduce schema-driven biases, leading her to interpret ambiguous information based on stereotypical representations of criminals (e.g., males, wearing black), which can distort memory accuracy (Schacter et al., 2011). Her later recollection at the security station, being one of the last to be interviewed, could also affect her retrieval confidence due to interference from other witnesses' reports, which might have altered her memory through misinformation effect (Loftus & Palmer, 1974).
Pascal's Memory Factors
Pascal was close enough to observe the perpetrator outside the store and had a brief view of the perpetrator's hair, which he identified as long and brown with blonde highlights. His memory may be influenced by encoding variability, as the image of the perpetrator was fleeting and his confidence was low. His description was compared to a doll, indicating a reliance on visual imagery, which can sometimes be vivid but prone to distortions, especially under stressful conditions (Garry et al., 1996). Given that this event was novel to him, elaborative encoding might have been limited, and his memory could be susceptible to confirmation bias if he subconsciously tries to match his impression with typical criminal features from media stereotypes. The fact that he was interviewed promptly may help his memory be more accurate, but the novelty of the event and limited attention at the time limit its robustness.
Donna's Memory Factors
Donna was in the same section of the store as the perpetrator and experienced heightened fear, which influences emotional arousal's role in memory encoding. According to the Yerkes-Dodson law, moderate arousal can enhance memory, but excessive fear may impair detailed encoding (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908). Donna’s vivid memory of the perpetrator scooping jewelry, coupled with her prior experience of a bank robbery, could lead to flashbulb memories, which are detailed memories formed under emotional stress—though these are not always accurate (Brown & Kulik, 1977). Her confidence in the identification was very high, which aligns with the tendency for emotionally charged events to produce illusions of confidence—making her likely more certain but not necessarily more accurate in her recall (Perfect et al., 2002). Being interviewed first might have minimized interference from other witnesses' recollections, potentially leading to more accurate initial encoding.
Comparative Reliability Analysis
Given the above, Donna’s eyewitness account might be more reliable than Ratuja's or Pascal’s because she observed the perpetrator directly, experienced strong emotional arousal, and was interviewed promptly. While her confidence is high, her vivid recall and emotional engagement may lead to more detailed and accurate memories, assuming her memory was not overly distorted by stress. Pascal's limited view and the brief glimpse of the perpetrator's hair suggest his memory is less detailed and more susceptible to distortion, especially given his unfamiliarity with such situations. Ratuja’s distance from the scene and reliance on secondhand accounts diminish her reliability due to potential schema-based distortions and the influence of external misinformation.
Overall, Donna is likely the most reliable witness based on the quality of her direct observation, emotional involvement, and relatively early interview, which supports the encoding and retrieval of more accurate episodic memories.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the reliability of eyewitnesses in such scenarios depends on factors such as direct observation, emotional arousal during the event, and timing of the interview. Donna’s direct, emotionally charged experience and early interview position her as the most dependable witness among the three, despite the inherent fallibility of eyewitness memory.
References
- Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5(1), 73-99.
- Garry, M., Manning, C., & Loftus, E. (1996). Imagination inflation for complex events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22(6), 1061–1077.
- Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13(5), 585-589.
- Perfect, T. J., HollinsInto, B., & Mehr, S. (2002). Eyewitness confidence and identification accuracy. Memory, 10(4), 343–353.
- Schacter, D. L., Kawas, C. H., & Sanderson, K. (2011). The cognitive neuroscience of aging. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(4), 263-268.
- Yerkes, R. M., & Dodson, J. D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18(5), 459-482.