Memories Form Knowledge
Throughout history, people have formed knowledge that they strongly believe in. However, little do they know that what they consider to be knowledge could be entirely false. This knowledge is based entirely on memories and preexisting schemas.
Throughout the past 30 years, experiments have demonstrated that memories are not immune to distortion. Research performed by Elizabeth A. Kensinger, p.h.D in Boston College shows that participants were better at remembering details of emotionally negative objects than of neutral ones. For example, they were able to remember what a snake looked like than what a monkey looked like. (Kensinger) Once objective knowledge enters the mind, it is painted by our hopes, fears, intentions and so on. A knowledge claim can be interpreted in different ways depending on the preexisting schemas and memories of the individual. For example, if I see a red clock, and I once grew up with red clocks, then I would distort the image of the red clock to a bigger idea than it is. To make sure we don’t create …show more content…
He was an American businessman who was falsely accused of rape. Titus was falsely accused of rape because the policemen saw that his car “sort of” resembled a car of a rapist in the neighborhood. He was convicted of rape and the victim’s statements went from “that one is the closest” to “I’m absolutely positive that is the man.” Titus died of a heart attack from stress at the age of 35 because of knowledge that was based on preexisting schemas in the mind of the victim. This shows how the emotions of the victim of humiliation and melancholy made her judgment on Titus false because she wished to find the man who raped her and the Titus was the first man accused in this case. As Elizabeth Loftus said, “your brain is essentially a Wikipedia page, where you can distort your own memories and so can others.”
Throughout history, people have formed knowledge that they strongly believe in. However, little do they know that what they consider to be knowledge could be entirely false. This knowledge is based entirely on memories and preexisting schemas.
Throughout the past 30 years, experiments have demonstrated that memories are not immune to distortion. Research performed by Elizabeth A. Kensinger, p.h.D in Boston College shows that participants were better at remembering details of emotionally negative objects than of neutral ones. For example, they were able to remember what a snake looked like than what a monkey looked like. (Kensinger) Once objective knowledge enters the mind, it is painted by our hopes, fears, intentions and so on. A knowledge claim can be interpreted in different ways depending on the preexisting schemas and memories of the individual. For example, if I see a red clock, and I once grew up with red clocks, then I would distort the image of the red clock to a bigger idea than it is. To make sure we don’t create …show more content…
He was an American businessman who was falsely accused of rape. Titus was falsely accused of rape because the policemen saw that his car “sort of” resembled a car of a rapist in the neighborhood. He was convicted of rape and the victim’s statements went from “that one is the closest” to “I’m absolutely positive that is the man.” Titus died of a heart attack from stress at the age of 35 because of knowledge that was based on preexisting schemas in the mind of the victim. This shows how the emotions of the victim of humiliation and melancholy made her judgment on Titus false because she wished to find the man who raped her and the Titus was the first man accused in this case. As Elizabeth Loftus said, “your brain is essentially a Wikipedia page, where you can distort your own memories and so can others.”