Inaccurate Witness Show the Power of False Memory
目擊者說法證實記憶謬誤
By Jim Dwyer

On a morning, Anthony O’Grady, 26, stood in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts in Manhattan. He heard a ruckus, some shouts, then saw a police officer chase a man into the street and shoot him down. Moments later, Mr. O’Grady said the wounded man was in fleeing when he was shot.
日前某個早晨，26歲的安東尼．歐葛雷迪站在Dunkin’ Donuts甜甜圈店的曼哈坦門市前，有人吼叫，接著看見一名警察追逐一名男子到街上後，開槍擊倒對方。

Sunny Khalsa, 41, had been riding her bicycle when she saw police officers and the man. She was shaken by the encounter. “I saw a man who was handcuffed being shot,” Ms. Khalsa said. “And I am sorry, maybe I am crazy, but that is what I saw.”
41歲的桑妮．卡薩看見警察和該男時，一直在騎單車，可把她給嚇壞了。她說：「我看見一個上了銬的男子遭槍擊。不好意思，也許我瘋了，不過這正是我所看見的。」

That afternoon, the New York Police Department released a surveillance videotape that showed that both Mr. O’Grady and Ms. Khalsa were wrong.
當天下午，紐約市警局公布監視錄影畫面，顯示歐葛雷迪和卡薩都錯了。

The man who was shot had not been trying to get away from the officers; he was actually chasing an officer from the sidewalk onto the street, swinging a hammer at her head. Behind both was the officer’s partner, who shot the man, David Baril. Ms. Khalsa did not see Mr. Baril being shot while in handcuffs; he is, as the video and still photographs show, freely swinging the hammer, then lying on the ground with his arms at his side. He was handcuffed a few moments later.
被槍擊的男子並未試圖逃離警方，反而是從人行道追趕某位女警到街上，拿鐵鎚對著她的頭部揮舞。站在兩人身後的是女警的搭檔，也就是朝男子大衛．巴里爾開槍的人。卡薩並未看見巴里爾在上銬狀態被槍擊，錄影和靜止畫面顯示，他可任意揮舞鐵鎚，然後躺在地上，雙臂在其兩側，過了一段時間才被上銬。

Studies of memories of traumatic events consistently show how common it is for errors to creep into confidently recalled accounts. “It’s pretty normal,” said Deryn Strange, an associate psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
對創傷性事件記憶的研究一致顯示，斬釘截鐵的回憶常暗藏謬誤。紐約約翰傑刑事司法學院心理學副教授狄琳．史川吉說：「這很常見」。

In one study, Dr. Strange showed people a film of a car accident in which five people, including a baby, were killed. The film was edited to remove segments of the accident. Then she tested the subjects 24 hours later on what they recalled. People were able to accurately describe what they had, in fact, seen, Dr. Strange said, but a significant number – 36 percent – also professed to have strong memories of parts of the crash that had actually not been shown to them.
在一項研究中，史川吉讓人們觀看車禍影片，包括一嬰兒在內共有五人遇害。影片剪輯時刪除了車禍的若干部分。史川吉24小時後測驗受試者記得甚麼。史川吉說，人們能夠準確描述自己實際所見，但相當比率（36％）的人表示，對於實際上沒有播出的車禍片段有很鮮明的記憶。

A leading researcher in the field of witness memory, Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, said there was ample evidence that people found ways to plug holes in their recollections. “Often they fill it with their own expectations, and certainly what they may hear from others,” she said.
證人記憶領域的頂尖研究者，爾灣加州大學的伊麗莎白．羅夫特斯表示，有充分證據顯示人們會想辦法填補回憶的漏洞。她說：「通常是用自己的期望去填補，當然也可能有別人的說法。」

These are not the statements of people who are lying. False memories can be as persuasive as genuine ones, Dr. Loftus said.
這並不表示人們說謊。羅夫特斯說，不實的記憶可能和真實的記憶一樣有說服力。

“I feel totally embarrassed,” Ms. Khalsa said after having seen the video. She now believes that she saw the initial encounter and then looked away. In that moment, the man began the attack, which lasted about three seconds until he was shot. She said, “In my mind I assumed he was just standing there passively, and now is on the ground in handcuffs.”
「我覺得超丟臉的，」卡薩看完錄影帶後如是說。她現在認為自己只看到開頭，然後就看別的地方了。那一瞬間男子開始攻擊，行動在被槍擊前約持續了三秒。她說：「我想當然認為他靜靜站在那兒，然後在地上被上手銬。」

“With all of the accounts in the news of police officers in shootings, I assumed that police were taking advantage of someone who was easily discriminated against,” she added. “Based on what I saw, I assumed the worst. Even though I had looked away.”
「聽了新聞裡對警方在槍擊案中的各種描述，我認定警方欺負某位很容易受歧視的人，」她又說。「根據所見，我認定發生了最壞的情況，雖然當時我的目光已轉向別處。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/nyregion/witness-accounts-in-midtown-hammer-attack-show-the-power-of-false-memory.html

2015-06-02聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報十版下