Plato said that our perception is always relative; and Aristotle knew that our memory is like a wax imprint Shapable and re-shapable. Scientific Studies of the last decades show that our perception relies on our history or context and that our memory is almost never reliable. Let me list words related to the act of sleeping: sleepy, drowsy bed, awaken waking up, among many others.
I'll give you some time to memorize them. Then I'll ask you to write them down. What do you think will happen?
You'll automatically add words I didn't mentioned but that are related to the subject. Such as the word sleep which I didn't use. That is the effect of memory shortcuts.
When formatting our memory we unite parts that were segregated and separate those that were united. That's why in situations of stress such as a burglary we mix things up more often Aside from being limited to register an event, we can be easily suggestible A good example of this can be found in Elizabeth Loftus' study: she divided a group in half In one group she showed a video of a car crash and asked them to guess how fast the cars were moving when they bumped into each other To the other group she showed the same video but asked them to guess how fast were the cars when they crashed. The group to which she used the term BUMP, on average guessed the cars were moving about 50 km/hour The other group to which she used the word CRASHED guessed on average that they were moving about 65 km/hour.
Had this study been conducted in Brazil the CRASHED group would probably guess 80 km/hour as we Brazilians speed more and are known to disrespect traffic laws more often. This study is one of many examples of how suggestible our memory is. Another example is police line up.
Here in Brazil the line up is done by Simultaneous line up where you gather all suspects and the police asks a witness to point out the possible culprit by comparison to identify the person that closest resembles the suspect. On the other hand, the photographic line up offers the witness the chance to go back and forth as many times as they want to identify the possible culprit. Neuroscientific literature suggests yet another type of identification named Sequential Line Up Procedure A procedure where you offer the witness one picture at a time and to each image presented the witness has the chance to confirm, deny or to be inconclusive about the identity of the suspect.
Time being an important factor in the equation. The upside of this procedure is that the chances of someone picking up an innocent by mistake is very low. The downside of this technique is that it can lower the chances of a witness to pick the right criminal.
As it is, the Brazilian judicial system favors the technique that can throw innocents in jail rather than the procedure that can let criminals run free Another factor that makes things even more complicated is that we are more likely to empathize with those with the same skin color as we have Which means that unbeknownst to us We'll tend to give a bigger leeway to those who look like us So imagine that if I'm a legislator I'll unconsciously work to reinforce laws that protect my skin color. I'll never conceive of a white person like me as a criminal. In Brazil the reality is that most legislators are white while criminals are black or mixed.
In the US, about 2,000 innocents are suspected to be incarcerated every year So it begs the question: how many innocents are incarcerated in Brazil then? As just like in the US the majority of the inmate population is predominantly non white. Neuroscience is not here just to protect the innocent It can be used as well to aid law enforcement in producing good evidence to enhance the Brazilian judicial system.
The System is currently flooded with poorly produced evidence and old fashioned techniques, producing cases that take up too much time. Instead of spending time with more relevant crimes that more directly affects our society. This approach creates obstacles to Police Intelligence and law enforcement that should be concentrating their efforts to fight big crimes committed by corrupt politicians stealing public funds and the self-esteem of the Brazilian population.
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