A number of years ago, I was surprised to read an interview with John Dean in
which he said that he had never heard of Neisser's study. I guess it just
makes one realize how little impact we academic psychologists often have on the
real world. In any case, Dean said that he finally ended up reading Neisser's
article and vehemently disagreed with it, claiming that Neisser had
cherry-picked a bunch of his statements to make it appear as though his memory
was much more fallible than it was.
I don't know quite what to make of this; I'm sure that Dean had/has his
strong biases in this matter, so I'm reluctant to place too much weight on his
protestations. But I was frankly surprised by the depth of Dean's criticism of
Neisser's analysis. If I recall correctly, Dean also claimed that Neisser got
many of the historical details of Watergate wrong. Dick Neisser was one of my
colleagues at Emory for many years, and I have a good deal of respect for him
and his scholarship, so I'm inclined to doubt that accusation, but one never
knows.
But, of course, that presumes that my recollection of this interview is
itself accurate. I looked for it online briefly without success.
...Scott
Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, Room 473
Emory University
36 Eagle Row,
Atlanta, Georgia 30322
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; 404-727-1125
From: Claudia Stanny [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 2:17 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] Herman Cain and memory
Perhaps there is an archival record that could be used to corroborate or
discredit aspects of Mr. Cain's current (and varying) recollections. The event
involved a settlement, so various details might be contained in the documents
surrounding that settlement (including who signed what settlement agreements).
Perhaps an analysis similar to the one Neisser did on John Dean's testimony
(comparing statements about conversations on specific dates made under oath to
transcripts of those conversations included in the Nixon tapes).
The ongoing statements could be evaluated as an interesting replication of
Bartlett's method of repeated recollection . . . without the original story to
guide us on introduction of new details, loss of earlier details, and other
distortions. :-)
For those unfamiliar with Neisser's study, you can find it in two locations:
Memory Observed (2nd ed). Neisser & Hyman, Worth Publishers
Neisser, U. (1981). John Dean's memory. Cognition, 9, 1-22.
Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D.
Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Associate Professor
School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751
Phone: (850) 857-6355 or 473-7435
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/
Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm
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