it's lunchtime and you're sitting around a table chatting and laughing with your friends as
现在是午餐时间，你围坐在一张桌子旁，和你的朋友聊天、大笑
other people pass through the kitchen
其他人走过厨房
but when one of your co-workers goes to get their lunch from the fridge
但当你的同事去冰箱拿午餐时
it's gone, someone took it
午餐不见了，被人拿走了
they asked you if you saw anything to try to get to the bottom of this mystery
他们问你有没有发现什么可以解开这个谜团
but how accurate is your memory of what happened
但你对所发生事情的记忆有多准确
whether it's a missing lunch or something bigger, eyewitness testimony can be really important when it comes to crime
无论是失踪的午餐还是其它大事，当涉及到犯罪时，目击者证词非常重要
but our memories aren't always so great
但我们的记忆并不总是很好，
so there are predictable ways that eyewitness reports can become less accurate and ways that we can prevent that
所以目击者证词的准确性可能会降低，我们可以通过各种方式来防止这种情况的发生，
psychologists know that our memories aren't perfect
心理学家知道我们的记忆并不完美
we don't recall every detail like watching back a YouTube video of what happened
我们不能回忆起每一个细节，比如在YouTube上观看的视频
our brains piece memories back together when we need them
当我们需要细节的时候，大脑会将记忆拼凑起来
and even the most vivid ones can have missing or wrong information like what color is the Pillsbury doughboys scarf
即使你记得很清楚，也可能会有遗漏的或错误的信息，比如皮尔斯伯里甜甜圈围巾是什么颜色
it's blue right no it's white, I just put it in your mind that it was blue
它是蓝色的，不，它是白色的，我只是将蓝色灌输给你的大脑
one-way memories can become contaminated is when misinformation gets added in often without you realizing
当错误信息进入大脑，你通常意识不到，单向记忆就会受损
this can happen because of the way a question gets asked or by listening to other reports of the event
这可能是因为问问题的方式或者听取了其他事件描述的缘故
the classic study published in 1974 by researchers at the University of Washington was one of the first to test
1974年，华盛顿大学研究人员发表的一项经典研究首次对其进行了测试
how the wording of questions affects eyewitness testimony
问题的措辞如何影响目击者的证词
specifically they were looking into leading questions
他们具体从诱导式提问着手
they had a hundred and fifty undergrads come to a lab watch a video of a car accident and then answer questions about it
让一百五十名本科生来到实验室观看一段车祸视频，然后回答问题
and one key question affected their responses
一个关键的问题影响了他们的答案
some participants were asked how fast were the cars going when they hit each other
一些受试者被问及这些汽车撞到时的速度有多快
while others were asked how fast were the cars going when they smashed each other
而其他人被问及这些汽车撞碎时的速度有多快，
those who heard smashed estimated the cars were going a little faster
听到撞碎声音的人估计开得快一些
and a week later when they were asked if there was any broken glass
一周后，当他们被问及是否有碎玻璃时
those who heard smashed were more likely to say yes when there wasn't any
那些听到“粉碎”声音的人更有可能在没有“粉碎”的情况下说“是”
so the way this leading question was phrased seemed to affect their memories
所以诱导提问的表达方式似乎影响了他们的记忆
talking with other witnesses can also muddle things
与其他证人交谈也会混淆记忆
a study published in 2017 by researchers from California State University
2017年，加州州立大学的研究人员发表的一项研究中，
had 289 undergrads watch a video of a car jacking in groups of five
289名本科生分成五组，观看了一段劫车视频，
then report what they saw one at a time
接着说出自己看到的，一次一个
two people per group were actually double agents
每组中有两人实际上是双重间谍

they were trained to say certain things including the totally false idea that the carjacker had a tattoo on his neck
这两人被训练去说某些事情，包括完全错误的言论——劫车犯的脖子上有一个纹身
after talking there was a delay ranging from five minutes to one week
交谈之后，从5分钟推迟到1周
then participants were told to pick the suspect out of a lineup of pictures
接着，参与者被要求从一组照片中选出嫌疑犯
the longer the delay, the more the misinformation affected them
推迟的时间越长，错误信息对他们的影响就越大
in some sessions the suspect wasn't actually in the lineup of pictures
某些时候，嫌疑犯并没有出现在照片中
after the five minute delay about twenty nine percent of people chose a photo of a vaguely similar person with a neck tattoo
推迟五分钟后，大约29%的人选择了一张颈部有类似纹身的人的照片
rather than someone who looked a lot like the suspect
而不是看起来很像嫌疑犯人的照片
after just 50 minutes a 48% of people followed the misinformation
推迟50分钟后，48%的人提供的信息是错误的
and after a week sixty percent did
推迟一周后，60%的人仍然会出现这种情况
when the suspect was in the lineup that effect still occurred
当嫌疑犯出现在队列中时，该效应依然存在
but people were only mislead after the week delay
但只在推迟一周后，人们才会被误导
and the effect wasn't as strong
而且效果没那么明显
confidence is pretty important when it comes to accuracy too
自信对于记忆的准确性也很重要
we usually have a good sense of how well we know something like
我们通常觉得自己对某件事很了解，比如
you probably had a good or bad feeling after taking tests at school
考试结束后的感觉可能有好有坏
so for eyewitness testimony,
而就目击者的证词来说，
if someone is questioned pretty quickly after the event, using good procedures
如果采用正确的询问步骤，迅速询问的话
their confidence can actually help predict their accuracy
目击者的自信实际上可以帮助预测证词的准确性
but as time goes by, be wary
但随着时间的流逝，你得小心
the more times you hear something even if it's wrong
听到的信息越多，
the more confident you are about it
你就会越自信，即使信息是错的
the good news is there are ways to protect against misinformation like by testing your memory right after an event
好消息是，有一些方法可以防止误报，比如在事件发生后
by answering questions without hearing other perspectives
通过回答问题而不听取其他观点来立即测试你的记忆力
this improves your ability to accurately recall stuff later which also works for school by the way
这提高了你以后准确回忆事情的能力，顺便说一下，这在学校也有用
another strategy is to warn people about misinformation
另一个策略是警告人们错误的信息
basically mentioning that other witnesses or sources like the media get some things wrong
基本上是指其他目击者或消息来源，比如，媒体做错了一些事情
so you should think carefully about where each piece of information in your memory came from
所以你应该仔细考虑一下你记忆中的每一条信息是从哪里来的
plus an easy way to increase how much you remember is to close your eyes
另外一个增加记忆的简单方法就是回忆的时候闭上眼睛
while you try to recall what happened it doesn't help every person all the time
这个方法并不适用每个人
but various studies have shown that blocking out other distractions can help you concentrate
但多项研究表明，排除其它干扰可以帮助你集中注意力
when it comes to telling whether someone is accurate there are other clues
提到判断某人的证词是否准确，还有其他线索
for instance people who are good at recognizing faces are more likely to correctly identify a suspect
例如，善于识别人脸的人更有可能正确识别嫌疑人
and if you quickly point out a suspect rather than taking the while to think
如果你迅速指出一个嫌疑人而没有花时间去思考
your more likely to be correct
很大可能你是正确的
but it's important to mention that there's no way to be 100% sure
但有一点很重要，那就是我们没有办法完全确定
eyewitness testimony can be really useful even when it comes to things like missing lunches
即使提到像错过午餐这样的事情，目击者的证词也真的很有用，
but because our memories aren't perfect
但因为我们的记忆并不是完全正确的
it's important to take stock of lots of different evidence
盘查大量不同的证据是很重要的
because honestly maybe somebody just grabbed the wrong lunch by accident
因为老实说，可能是有人不小心拿错了午餐
it happens to me a lot
我经常遇到这种情况
thanks for watching this episode of scishow psyche if you want to learn more about how our brains store information
感谢收看心理科学秀节目，如果你想了解更多关于大脑如何储存信息的知识，
check out our video about whether photographic memory actually exists
请观看我们的视频——照片记忆是否真的存在