Watch and learn! Carefully selected media links will help bring key concepts and theories to life, preparing you for your studies and exams. 

Click on the following links which will open in a new window.

Video Links

• Long-Term Memory and the Brain
  A part of a lecture comparing long-term to short-term memory, in terms of gene expression. Fairly high-level, but thought-provoking.

• 9/11 Flashbulb Memories
  A neuropsychological study of flashbulb memories, which suggests that amygdala activation depends upon your closeness to the emotional event.

• Eyewitness Testimony
  This lengthy report from 60 minutes is well worth showing. It describes the North Carolina case of Ronald Cotton, who was falsely imprisoned for rape because of the confident eyewitness testimony of victim Jennifer Thompson. As the story unfolds, memory experts explain how such errors occur, and what we can do to prevent them.

Audio Links

• Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony Under Scrutiny.
  Talk of the Nation covers the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that makes it easier for defendants to question the reliability of eyewitness identifications in court.

• Why Can Some People Recall Every Day of Their Lives?
  Brain scan research on superior autobiographical memory is explored in this Morning Edition story.

• Woman’s Long-Term Memory Astonishes Scientists
  A Morning Edition report on a women with an astonishing long-term memory.

Web Resources

• Endel Tulving - Cognitive Psychologist
  If you like to introduce your students to “the people behind the research,” this biographical page is ideal. It focuses on the life and contributions of Tulving, including photographs and links to all sorts of facts about Tulving.
  Follow-up exercise: Play the role of a news reporter, and plan some questions to ask Endel Tulving in an interview.

• Eyewitness reliability: Gary Wells’ web page
  A great collection of resources on eyewitness testimony, including the most recent articles by Gary Wells and his associates.
  Follow-up exercise: Scroll down and “take the Wells eyewitness test” in class or out of class. Most students are surprised by how difficult it is.

• False memory (Roediger-McDermott task)
  This experiment from John H. Krantz of Hanover College allows you to create a false memory with either words or pictures.

• False memory resources. [Cautionary note: Much of the web material on repressed/false memories--over 3 million pages now!--is heavily slanted toward one side of the debate or the other; instructors should caution students to think critically about any extreme claims regarding the prevalence of repressed memories or false memories. A few of the more interesting web sources are listed below:]

  • “Remembering Dangerously.”
    This is the full text of a very accessible article by Elizabeth Loftus, originally published in the Skeptical Inquirer in March, 1995. It presents an analogy between the “repressed memory movement” and the Salem witch trials, now a classic argument of false memory advocates. Not much laboratory data, but a few nice case study examples.

  • “Repressed memories and recovered memory therapy (RMT).”
    Skeptical summary of RMT techniques and court decisions related to repressed memory claims. Good list of references regarding false memories.

  • “False Memory Syndrome Facts”
    Clearly slanted, but does have links to some good articles and resources, and even "comic relief."
    Follow-up exercise: Ask students to read one or more of these resources and briefly report on what they find. You might even organize a formal debate on the existence of repressed memories or the extent of the “problem” of false memories.