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Neuroscience and the Law: Memory and Lie Detection (Audio Download) |
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Memory is central to the daily practice of law. In civil and criminal trials, witnesses' memories are often crucial to the verdict, and a faulty memory can mean a flawed verdict. Yet, how accurate and reliable is human memory? The answer is "not very." Eyewitness testimony is the most common cause of erroneous convictions that have subsequently been reversed through the work of the Innocence Project, which uses DNA analysis and other forensic tools to re-examine cases of prisoners claiming innocence.
Dr. Craig Stark, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine, explains that memories are fragile and subject to change over time. He gives examples of the common causes of faulty memory and the neurological underpinnings of memory formation and retrieval. He will also address the question of whether we can distinguish between false and true memories, and what that means for detecting deception.
Attorney Teneille R. Brown from the University of Utah discusses how the reliability of human memory is important for trial practice. Questions about memory can arise when interviewing clients and determining whether to take a case, or when deciding which witnesses should testify. Here we focus on developments in brain-based memory detection that might be able to assess whether someone has seen a particular face or scene, or add some confidence as to whether someone truly remembers an event. We discuss cases where such brain-based memory detection technologies were introduced, and the evidentiary limitations on this technology for trial practice under Daubert and Frye.
Moderator: Russell Moy
Speakers: Teneille R. Brown, J.D. and Craig Stark, Ph.D.
Co-Sponsors: ABA Criminal Justice Section, Senior Lawyers Division, the Special Committee on Bioethics and the Law, and the International Neuroethics Society
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