Skin cancer is an important health issue in Australia and is connected Research Paper

Skin cancer is an important health issue in Australia and is connected to the National Health Priority Area Cancer Control' - Research Paper Example e Sun smart 2013) gives figures of more than 434,000 Australian people being treated for one or more non-melanoma cancers every year and, in the case of melanomas, 11,500 people require treatment annually. According to Right Diagnosis (2014) skin cancer is recorded as the tenth most common cause of deaths from cancer within Australia. These cancers also account for roughly 80% of all newly diagnosed Australian cancers ( Cancer Council of Australia 2014). Despite advances made in recent years, skin cancers are still being caused as a result of skin damage by the sun, and so are preventable. There are three types of skin cancer, melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma, and of these the first , melanoma, is the most aggressive and dangerous ( University of Michigan Health System , 2013). As well as affecting many lives in negative ways , it also increase costs for the health services, as well as using up many resources, so adequate prevention is a positive intervention. In 1996 the first ever International Conference on Health Promotion, took place in Ottawa, Canada, on the 21st November ( WHO 2014). The conference advocated income, sustainable resources, peace, shelter, education, food, social justice, a stable eco-system and equity. The prevention of childhood skin cancers would fit into this, as prevention programmes must be available to all affected equally as an act of social justice. Income to pay for any strategy is needed , as is education on the topic, and the provision of sustainable resources, and even shelter from the sun’s rays. According to Slowik ( 2012) ultra violet rays (UV rays) are part of the section of sun light hidden to normal human view. Over exposure to UV rays can cause damage to DNA, the genetic material contained in the body’s cells. In the skin cells these genes control the ways in which skin cells grow and their health. Norby ( undated) refers to thyamine dimers which are a pair of adjacent

Body image in different cultures Research Paper

Body image in different cultures - Research Paper Example Research within the understanding of body in different parts of the world has suggested that people like to showcase if they have any cuts that could make headlines for the people who are near and dear to them. In other words, the social circles hold a great deal of value for them because the body debates can go on and on and that too for a number of different reasons. The cultural angle is important to comprehend because some cultures are against the dictum of representing body in such a way that it gets exposed (Cash, 2002). There are others however that have no restriction whatsoever and opine that the body elements and shapes should be depicted as much as possible. What is important within such debates is that what people think of the related equations. If they are open to showcasing who they are and how they believe in their body types and shapes, then this is something that goes perfectly and in line with the discussion at hand. However, if they think this is not what they woul d like to demonstrate about their own selves, then so be it. Body image is seen as a very differential aspect within some countries because it means so much more than just body representation. ... Body image is one of the main concerns within Australia. It has been researched that the 11-24 year olds find it hard to adjust to body image requirements and want to be on top of their game. This includes both the males and the females as this is indeed one of the major concerns that surround their entirety. Within Venezuela, the debate is on the women’s body image that is signified through boobs. The size of the boob is one concern that has come to the fore as far as the women within Venezuela are related. However, America has maintained an unhealthy lust for body image as has been represented through media and different cross-sections of the society. The thin models denote how the modern American female would like herself to be. This has meant that she would almost do anything to look that way. There is complex of magnanimity if she feels she is out of proportion. It is a fact that there is not a single woman in this world who feels indifferent about her body. The same hold s true for males as well. They also want to look at their best as has been represented in different avenues of the media in this day and age. What is interesting enough to note here is the fact that both men and women have found themselves stuck in a rat race with the passage of time. They have understood that to move ahead they would have to be someone that they are not. In essence, the element of aspiration takes the front seat within the related settings, and this is a very unsettling act in entirety. Some elements within the body image discussions center on the premise of religion as well (Fisher, 1986). The Muslim religion does not allow their women to liberally

Organizational Learning and Development - Research report on Essay

Organizational Learning and Development - Research report on CREATIVITY and INNOVATION in an organization - Essay Example A team headed by an HR executive hired for the purpose made a survey on the input and output rendered in the system. To the surprise of all, the team arrived at a finding that the level of creativity before computerisation was relatively high. The fall in creativity lead to nil innovation albeit scores of channels were available to finish the job in no time. The team sample picked a section comprising about thirty employees who gave relatively greater output during the regime of their manual working pattern. The team found that the employees who were new to the use of computers in their work field were over loaded with technical bottle-necks, which they were forced to get redressed with the help of computer engineer on visit to the firm only on call. The types of fall in creativity and the cause were analysed and arrived at a point that the administration in its stubborn ambition of modernisation by computerisation paid very little heed to the human resource and related innovative possibilities. Compulsion to give their output only through computers – hitherto unacquainted -- had formed a sort of psychic inhibition in the minds of the employees, a chunk of who were even mentally forced to quit the job. The team empirically permitted a couple of the employees who were giving much yield in their pre-computer era to have a manual back up and condoned the delay for such additional load of work. In addition they were afforded incentives even for paltry improvements in their technical operations. Over a spell of 90 days the two employees began to excel in computer operations and were willing to work only with computers bidding a bye to traditional type of manual work. Thus freedom in their realm of activities and rewards made employees to come up with a flood of new ideas. Imparting training in the field clubbed with freedom certainly improved the level of creativity and innovation. Creativity although is universally accepted as a needful and useful

To Think for Yourself Essay Example for Free

To Think for Yourself Essay Henry David Thoreaus, Walden, is a novel focused completely around the idea of self-reliance. In the novel, Thoreau goes even more in depth into this idea, focusing a passage on the specific idea of experiencing your life solely for yourself, not through the ideas or beliefs of anyone else. He states, No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof(1616). He fully believes that a person cannot live their life based on hear say. He believes that if you have not seen or experienced something yourself to prove that it is indeed true, you are living your life based on false pretenses missing out on not only some of the greatest aspects of life, but of forming your own self. Seeing this overpowering influence of the media and others in todays society on me, as Thoreau would, this is a belief my mother has instilled in me since the day I was born. She has always told me, If you didnt see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, or feel it for yourself, then you have no idea if it is true. Overcoming the large influence of our elders, as well as the media in this generation, means stepping out against the norm and experiencing life on our own terms, in order to learn just how much more the world has to offer than someone elses beliefs. Thoreau persuades his readers by providing us with several examples of times he has proven his belief to be true. He uses this example to mock a common belief of his towns people when he states, What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow,  mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields (1616). Thoreau could not have chosen a better way to define other peoples opinions than as a mere smoke of opinion because that is exactly what it is. There is clearly no such thing as a fertilizing rain, but if Thoreau did not have the untrustworthy stance he had, he would have believed this fantasy just as everyone else did. Everyone in life, especially our elders, is going to have a different opinion on just about everything there is to have an opinion on. However, what they say to be true from their time may not be true today. Thoreau provides us with the example of the elders of his time not being smart enough to find fuel, while fuel had already become the largest source of heat for his time because someone decided to go against the norm and try it (1616). Therefore this was once again a statement easily proven false with a little effort. In Thoreaus passage, it is nearly impossible to ignore his brute stance on only trusting your own experiences and opinions over any one elses. He gives an even better example why he believes this so passionately when he states, One farmer says to me, You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with; and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw materials of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. (1616). In this quote, Thoreau even uses a sense of humor effectively proving his point, as well as showing his readers it is not just elders that are not to be trusted, it is everyone. He is clearly mocking this man, for the man blatantly contradicts himself by not even realizing the animal he is using for such hard labor, survives off of nothing but vegetables. Thoreau proves the valuable point; how can a person trust what people tell them when it is this easily proven wrong? He wants us to see this is only a few of the many things that others could swear to be true, only to be proved false by a little thought from a different perspective or experience. Reading this passage and seeing Thoreaus passionate belief has brought many prevalent concerns about todays society to mind. Being influenced by what others tell you to be true, based of off their beliefs, is still as big of an issue today as Thoreau believed it to be in this passage. There is not one person alive, whether it was in ancient history or today, that has not been persuaded in some way to follow a certain crowd or believe a certain thing just because it is the popular belief or simply what that individual believes to be true. Not only one of the greatest influences, but at times one of the greatest issues on society, will always be the media. All it takes is one meager talk show host to make a statement, whether about a celebrity, government official, or religion, for the entire world to believe it to be true, proof or no proof. It is a shame how many magazines or television shows support their business by selling magazines or episodes implying or hinting at something to be true even if it isnt. A prime example of this is the US Weekly, People, Ok!, Cosmopolitan, etc. magazines, that exists solely based on gossip and popular trends, yet this is what most of the world, especially young adults, choose to read for entertainment or advise. The phrase, All it takes is one rumor, true or not is prevalent now more than ever. People today do not take the time Thoreau is saying is necessary to find out if something is really true or not. A lot of the time, they simply just do not even care. That one rumor is all they need to hear for it to spread like wildfire. Not only can this ruin the victim of the rumors life, it alters the way the believers look at life. How are people supposed to think for themselves and develop their own identity when the world is telling them exactly whom they should be and what they should believe, no questions asked? All it takes is a little courage and a small amount of time to go against the norm to see if something is true in your opinion or just in everyone elses. As Thoreau says, What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can (1616). In his time, there was no overpowering media as there is today so I am referring to his old people as our media today and I know from many experiences, in the grand scheme of things, it is completely worth it to find out that you can. In conclusion, Thoreaus unwavering outlook on the need to prove what others have to say to be true before blindly trusting them is still very necessary today, if not more. There are going to be times when listening to others is the better judgment, especially in the case of safety, however, relying solely on others to tell you how to live your life or view others based on gossip is a different story. If you constantly follow what others tell you to do and not to do, you will never develop your own sense of the world and the people in it through your own mistakes and perspective. You will merely be walking through life in someone elses shoes. Works Cited Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. _The Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 1_. Ed. George McMichael. 10th ed. New York: Pearson, 2011. 1193-1310. Print.

Use of Distributed Computing in Processing Big Data

Use of Distributed Computing in Processing Big Data Distributed Systems is an upcoming area in computer science and has the ability to have a large impact on the many aspects in[G1] the medical, scientific, financial and commercial sector. This document will provide an overview of distributed systems along with their current applications and application in big data. The most commonly used definition for a distributed system is, a system comprised of geographically dispersed computing components interacting on a hardware or software level [1].The rise in interest for distributed computing can be attributed to two major factors. The first factor is the creation and advancements in local and wide area networks which allow for large amounts of data to be transmitted over great distances in a short period of time [2]. The second factor is the new craze of the Internet of Things (IoT), where nearly every physical device manufacture having some sort of internet connectivity allowing for the possibility of tens of billions of devices that are able to interact. This large network of interconnected devices can be utilised to compute large amounts of data in a fraction of the time it would currently take to process. Characteristics of a Distributed System Heterogeneity Heterogeneity refers to the ability for the system to operate on a variety of different hardware and software components. This is achieved through the implementation of middleware in the software layer. The goal of the middleware is to abstract and interpret the programming procedural calls such that the distributed processing can be achieved on a variety of differing nodes [3]. Openness The openness of a distributed system is defined as the difficulty involved to extend or improve an existing system. This characteristic allows us to reuse a distributed system for multiple functions or to process varying sets of data. Concurrency Concurrency refers to the systems ability to handle the access and use of shared recourses. This is important because if there is no measure implemented it is possible for data to get corrupted or lost by two nodes making different changes to the same resource such that the system can carry this error through different processes causing an incorrect result. One way to counteract these errors is to implement a locking mechanism making a node unable to access a resource whilst it is being used by another node.[G2][G3] Scalability Scalability is one of the major characteristics that effectiveness of a distributed system, it refers to how easily the system can adapt to a changing size. This is due to the volatile nature of computers, such that a device is prone to leaving and joining the system at will. This volatility is caused by computers powering down, or unstable networks causing connectivity issues.[G4][G5] One factor that affects scalability is the degree at which the system is centralised. This is due to if a system relies on a centralised component or process (e.g. a central [G6]server), the more nodes that try to communicate or use this component, the more likely it is that there will be a bottleneck at this point in the system.[G7] Fault Tolerance Due to a distributed system having many computers comprised of different aged hardware, it is very likely for a part to fail in such a way that a node can no longer operate. Fault Tolerance is the ability for the system to handle such failures, this is achieved by using recovery and redundancy. Recovery is [G8]where a component will act in a predictable, controlled way if it relies on a component. Redundancy is where crucial systems and processes will have a backup that takes over if a system fails.[G9][G10] Transparency Transparency in a distributed system refers to the idea that the user perceives that they are interacting with a whole quantity rather than a collection of cooperating components. Transparency can be split into the following 8 sub-characteristics defined in Table 1. Table 1 Different forms of transparency in a distributed system [2]. Transparency Description Access Hide differences in data representation and how an object is accessed Location Hide where an object is located Relocation Hide that an object may be moved to another location while in use Migration Hide that an object may move to another location Replication Hide that an object is replicated Concurrency Hide that an object may be shared by several independent users Failure Hide the failure and recovery of an object The Internet The internet is the largest and most well-known decentralised distributed system ever created. It is currently comprised of millions of geographically distributed interconnected web servers that can communicate autonomously with each other and the billions of endpoint nodes [4]. The internet is constantly growing with more website and nodes added every day. One of the major factors contributing to the growth of nodes is the boost in IoT or smart devices. ATM Machines ATM machines are an example of a centralised distributed system that has been implemented globally. This is a centralised system because each ATM machine will [G11]only communicate with its bank central server. Centralisation is enforced as a measure to increase the security of the sensitive information stored on the banks databases[G12]. Each banks ATM network has the ability to communicate with another banks server [G13]such that a user can withdraw money from any ATM around the world. Botnets Botnets are an example of a malicious distributed system. They are can either be operated by a central server or based off a peer-[G14]to-peer network. A botnet is comprised of a collection of zombie machines which have been infected with malware allowing the bot master to control it and a command and control server whose role is to control the zombie computers allowing the zombie machines to execute any command that the botmaster desires. Data is any accumulation of facts and statistics to be analysed or referenced. Big data is most commonly defined as extremely large sets of data, both structured and unstructured, [G15]that can be analysed to reveal patterns and trends. This data is sufficiently complex or large enough that conventional data processing processes and applications are unable to deal with it [5]. Crowdsourcing is not a new idea in the software world, it is not an uncommon sight to see a developer pose a task to the masses and have someone else complete the task. This is mostly done free of charge. A similar concept is starting to be applied to big data, where researchers and institutes have started to crowdsource data for people to process[G16]. Currently, most data that has been crowdsourced is [G17]for scientific or medical research. A factor that contributes to the success of data processing on distributed systems is the relatively low cost of [G18]transferring data compared the cost incurred from doing the data processing internally [6].[G19] Play to Cure: Genes in Space Play to Cure: Genes in Space is a mobile gaming application developed by Cancer Research UK. Its main purpose is to allow the general public to process large amounts of data for the scientist at Cambridge University.[G20] The data is processed by the user controlling a spaceship to try and collect as much Element Alpha as possible. What the user is not aware that the placement of Element Alpha directly correlates to a singular piece of plotted data [7]. In the first month alone the application has managed to analyse 1.5 million data sample. To process a similar number of samples the research team achieve a similar amount of samples processed, it would take the research team 125,000 man hours [7]. Whilst it is a rudimentary implementation of a distributed system, Play to Cure: Genes in Space is a successful implementation and can show how important large distributed systems can processing big data. [emailprotected] [emailprotected] is currently the largest distributed computing program and was created by the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute and hosted out at UC Berkeley. It currently has approximately 3 million active users donating their computers[G21][G22] spare processing power to process data obtained from SETIs radio telescopes [8]. Since [emailprotected] is a voluntary program, each node needs to be able to process data in a way that the user is not negatively affected and choose to leave the program. This is achieved through the application processing data when it is detected that a machines CPU is [G23]idling [9]. As of the 10 March 2017, the [G24][emailprotected] program has come close to processing 18 years worth of data from the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope [10]. This achievement displays how easily large amounts of data can be processed by large distributed systems. There are endless possibilities when it comes to the potential applications[G25] for distributed systems. Processing big data is a lucrative market, this might cause a lot of large multinational organisation to try and utilise their own hardware to implement their own personal distributed system to process the terabytes of data that they can extrapolate from their Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and from data obtained from the media and other sources. Stock trading is a cut throat industry, and the ability to predict market trends faster than a competitor can allow a particular firm to make millions of dollars. It is plausible for large firms to implement their own distributed system to analyse previous market trends and current global and local affairs to predict the upcoming state of the market. In the future, distributed systems will allow for big data to be processed potentially at a near real-time timeframe. This document has outlined how distributed systems can assist in the faster and more effective processing of big data. References [1]H. Karatza and G. Theodoropoulos, Distributed Systems Simulation, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 677-678, 2006. [2]M. van Steen and A. Tanenbaum, A brief introduction to distributed systems, Computing, vol. 98, no. 10, pp. 967-1009, 2016. [3]G. Coulouris, J. Dollimore, T. Kindberg and G. Blair, Distributed systems, 1st ed. Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 16-25. [4]G. Coulouris, J. Dollimore, T. Kindberg and G. Blair, Distributed systems, 1st ed. Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 8-9. [5]P. Grover and R. Johari, BCD: BigData, cloud computing and distributed computing, 2015 Global Conference on Communication Technologies (GCCT), 2015. [6]J. Gray, Distributed Computing Economics, Queue, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 63-68, 2008. [7]O. Childs, Download our revolutionary mobile game to help speed up cancer research, Cancer Research UK Science blog, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/02/04/download-our-revolutionary-mobile-game-to-help-speed-up-cancer-research/. [Accessed: 24- Mar- 2017]. [8]B. Marr, Big Data: Using SMART Big Data; Analytics and Metrics To Make Better Decisions and Improve Performance, 1st ed. Wiley, 2015, pp. 208-209. [9]E. Korpela, D. Werthimer, D. Anderson, J. Cobb and M. Leboisky, [emailprotected] distributed computing for SETI, Computing in Science Engineering, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 78-83, 2001. [10][emailprotected], Setiathome.berkeley.edu, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/. [Accessed: 24- Mar- 2017]. [11]D. Anderson, J. Cobb, E. Korpela, M. Lebofsky and D. Werthimer, [emailprotected]: an experiment in public-resource computing, Communications of the ACM, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 56-61, 2002. [12]S. Khan, The Curious Case of Distributed Systems and Continuous Computing, IT Professional, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 4-7, 2016. [13]E. Albert, J. Correas, G. Puebla and G. Romà ¡n-Dà ­ez, Quantified abstract configurations of distributed systems, Formal Aspects of Computing, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 665-699, 2014. [14]S. Vinoski, Rediscovering Distributed Systems, IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 3-6, 2014. [15]I. Foster, C. Kesselman, J. Nick and S. Tuecke, Grid services for distributed system integration, Computer, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 37-46, 2002. [G1]Inserted: s [G2]Inserted: is [G3]Deleted:are [G4]Inserted: by [G5]Deleted:from [G6]Inserted: a [G7]Deleted:e [G8]Inserted: by [G9]Inserted: s [G10]Deleted:through [G11]Inserted: an [G12]Inserted: [G13]Inserted: [G14]Inserted: f [G15]Inserted: d [G16]Inserted: r [G17]Inserted: , [G18]Inserted: f [G19]Deleted:t [G20]Inserted:   the [G21]Inserted: [G22]Inserted: s [G23]Inserted: [G24]Inserted: , [G25]Inserted: s [G26]Inserted: ,

Healthier Living Practices Essay -- Health, Public Spaces, Walking Env

Research has made it clear that healthier living practices need to be implemented in our daily lives. Health concerns have raised awareness and motivation throughout the world in recent years. An interest in more physically interactive public areas and spaces has been a proposed idea to the matter. The Chicago’s World Fair became a catalyst of sorts to organized, active and functional landscaping. Funding is provided from both state and federal agencies but has recently been an area of less concern. Ignoring potential health benefits from public areas by not constructing them is perhaps worth the extra available budget to some but recent studies show that the populous needs the areas to live healthier lives. Nevertheless, the success of these outdoor areas has left many questioning why their local community or city does not have such a place. More specifically explained by Joachim P Sturmberg, Carmel M. Martin and Di O’Halloran’s Journal, Music in the Park, parks offer â€Å"universal access and equity to be shared by all who want to go there (409).† Public spaces like parks and plazas offer many features that make them positive investments. Lavish open green lawns are a key factor and are the most notable characteristic of a park today. â€Å"The possibility of being physically active is greater among those living in areas with a larger proportion of land dedicated to public parks (1420).† The quote from Eduardo J. Simoes’ article concerning physical activity in public parks suggest that simply having more available recreational areas will influence the public to be active. Setting aside land for public space is done at both state and federal levels but at times get wasted and not used to its upmost potential. An organization out of Fl... ...ivity promotion and parks and recreation, the role of public parks and recreation setting has been acknowledged only recently by public health professions.† An area that has been revolutionized within the last century and only has room to grow, innovate and change the lives of all. â€Å"Despite the increasing recognition of the growing role of parks and recreation, a number of questions remain unanswered about how park and recreation programs are central to physical activity promotion within communities. (1)† Regardless the fact that these public places are positively influencing our communities, children lives, and inevitably paving the way for a healthier tomorrow should be reason enough to support the construction and use of more public spaces. Healthier, happier people are the outcome of these areas, lets embrace these spaces and make an effort to keep them clean.

Cognitive Psychology False Memory Essay

Theoretical and Applied/Practical Perspective of False Memory The human memory is subject to a multitude of errors, including source misattributions, distortion and creation of false memories. In order to do justice to this paper one must first determine what is â€Å"False memory†? False memory is memory for an event that did not occur or distorted memory of actual events (Gleaves, Smith, Butler, & Spiegel, 2004). This type of memory has been an area of intense research interest for both theoretical and practical reasons and psychologists have long been interested in memory illusions and distortions, as such errors can inform theories of how the memory works (Hunt & Ellis, 2004). From a theoretical perspective, false memories have been the subject of intense debates about the nature of human memory and a focal point for old and new memory theories. Memories are not simply stored and retrieved, information is encoded and memories are reconstructed using previous knowledge to p iece together the situation as one thinks it occurred (Loftus & Ketchan, 1994). Therefore perception and comprehension of ongoing events always brings related information to mind. For example, an individual mentions that he/she had a great trip to the beach over the weekend. In comprehending what the individual is saying; one may imagine their last visit to Miami Beach. Later one remembers that the said individual mentioned his/her visit to Miami Beach when, in fact, the individual said nothing about which beach he/she visited. This example illustrates how frequently one might remember information related to ones ongoing perception and comprehension, even though the events represented by that information never occurred (Hunt & Ellis, 2004). One of the most common ways that false memories have been studied is through the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) effect. This list learning paradigm provided a traceable means by which false memories can be created and studied in the laboratory. Gallo, McDermott, Percer & Roediger III (2001) explained that the DRM paradigm was a method of using converging semantic associates to induce false memories. It basically referred to the high confidence false recall or recognition of the critical lure. Within the study subjects were given a list of words for immediate free recall. These words were all associated semantically with a critical lure which itself was not presented. For example, if the critical lure was sleep the list would have consisted of fifteen words most highly associated with sleep such as bed to the least highly associated which would be drowsy on free association norms. Even though the critical lure was not on the list, subjects often falsely reported it and on recognition tests, these individuals often â€Å"remember† these words with a high degree of confidence (Surgrue & Hayne, 2006). False memories arising from phonologically associated lists may indeed be enhanced by phonological encoding in comparison with semantic encoding. False memories therefore can be elicited by presenting lists of phonologically related words in both recognition and recall tasks (Chan, McDermott, Watson & Gallo, 2005). According to the fuzzy traced theory (as cited in Howe, 2008), subjects encode both verbatim information about the experience to gist information about the experience. Applied to the DRM paradigm gist information represents the semantic commonalities among lure’s studied associates, which lead the fuzzy trace theory to propose that lure errors are familiarity based (Arndt, 2010). Memory errors to unstudied items arise from how well they match gist traces and that memory errors are limited by the extent to which unstudied items produce retrieval of verbatim traces. Therefore lure errors increase when they match the gists representation of their studied associates but decrease when retrieval is inspired of the verbatim traces of their studied associates (Howe, 2008). Once the gist representation is reasonably strong it can produce an illusory subjective experience of its actual presentation, this is known as phantom recollection (Gallo, McDermott, Percer & Roediger III, 2001). When this phenomenon occurs an individual may confuse the gist trace strength with the psychological experience of recollecting, which is normally mediated by retrieving verbatim traces of studied items. As lure items tend to match very strong gist traces in memory individuals believe they can recollect DRM lures. According to Arndt, (2010), â€Å"this theory proposes that although these errors are often phenomenologically similar to items that were episodically experienced, lures’ recollection phenomenology is representationally distinct from that of study items† (p.67). There is evidence however that false memory can be based largely on automatic processing and is amenable to only limited conscious control. For example, Dodd and MacLeod (2004), showed that mere exposure to DRM lists was sufficient to create a false memory: They presented DRM lists as coloured words in a Stroop test. Naming colours reduced accurate memory for list words as compared to reading coloured words, but false memory remained high for critical words. Furthermore, the elimination of false memory is difficult in that certain â€Å"encoding manipulations may lead to reductions in false memories through metamemorial processes occurring at retrieval† (Gallo, McDermott, Percer & Roediger III, 2001, p.339). For example slowing presentation rate decreases the probability of false remembering, but may not eliminate it (Gallo, McDermott, Percer & Roediger III, 2001). False memories are remarkably persistent. For example, Toglia, Neuschatz and Goodwin (1999) found that false recall rates remained high over a three-week period, whereas recall of studied words revealed the typical decrement. In short, the DRM paradigm allows for the easy and reliable elicitation of false memories in the laboratory. From a practical perspective, false memories are a threat to the validity of eyewitness testimony, a misleading source of autobiographical information in psychotherapy, and a biased representation of lessons taught in educational settings. For this assignment the validity of eyewitness testimony only, will be discussed (Hunt & Ellis, 2004). According to Greene (as cited in Loftus, 1995, p.720), â€Å"memories do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, they continually disrupt each other through a mechanism that we call â€Å"interference†. For instance, memories can be disrupted by things that an individual experienced earlier, this is known as proactive interference or situations that one may experience later, which is known as retroactive interference. Based on the interference theory from a retroactive interference perspective, when new information is received that is mislea ding in some ways individuals make errors when they report what they saw. The reason for this is that new information often becomes incorporated into the recollection, supplementing or altering it in a significant way (Porter, Bellhouse, McDougall, Brinke & Wilson, 2010). Elizabeth Loftus (as cited in Hunt & Ellis, 2004), pioneered laboratory research modeled on eyewitness situation demonstrating the intervening events that occur between witnessing an event and subsequent testimony in court. The paradigm for this research was simple, participants witnesses a simulated violent crime of an automobile accident half of the participants received new misleading information about the event and the other half did not received any misinformation. The participants in this experiment were influenced by presuppositions invoked by the verbs smashed and hit based on the question asked, which was â€Å"About how fast the car was going when they hit, smashed each other †. Smashed presupposes a more violent collision a fact that influences both estimates of speed an d amount of damage. Therefore individuals who stated that there was broken glass saw the word â€Å"smashed†, but no broken glass was actually depicted in the film. The presupposition dramatically, but subtly influenced memory for the actual event (Loftus, 1995). What was being remembered was the integrated memory of the two events, memory for the original film, plus memory for the additional information that was inherent in the question asked later. As the two memories blended over time the end result would be a single blended memory that is a distortion of the original event (Hunt & Ellis, 2004). Higham (1998), showed that the latency between exposure to misinformation and time recall also influenced the misinformation effect, such that recent exposure to recent information was associated with greater recall of false details. Therefore both the response bias and memory change accounts have important implications for how one might regard the reliability of eyewitness testimony. According to Loftus & Pickrell (1995), false memories can be implanted as was demonstrated in the â€Å"Lost-in-a-shopping-mall† study. It suggested that memory of an entire mildly traumatic event can be created and that further questions may be asked, such as, is it possible to implant a memory of abuse. For example one of the most dramatic cases of false memory of abuse ever to be documented was the case of Paul Ingram from Olympia, Washington (Ofshe, 1992; Watters, 1991). This individual was arrested for child abuse in 1988 at the time he was chair of the county Republican committee. From the outset he denied everything, but after five months of interrogation, suggestions from a psychologist and continuing pressure from detectives and advisors, Ingram began to confess to rapes, assaults, child sexual abuse, and participation in a Satan-worshiping cult alleged to have murdered 25 babies (Loftus, 1993). Ofshe (1989) noted that this was not the first time that a vulnerable individual had been made to believe that he had committed a crime for which he originally had no memory and which evidence proved he could not have committed. What is crucial about the Ingram case is that some of the same methods that are used in repressed memory cases were used with Ingram. This case also provides further insights into the malleable nature of memory. They suggest that memories for personally traumatic events can be altered by new experiences. Moreover, they reveal that entire events that never happened can be injected into memory. Therefore false memories range from the relatively trivial (e.g., remembering voting) to the bizarre (e.g., remembering forcing one’s daughter and son to have sex) (Loftus, 1993). These false memories, with more or less detail, of course, do not prove that repressed memories of abuse that return are false. They do demonstrate a mechanism by which false memories can be created, by a small suggestion from a trusted family member, by hearing someone lie, by suggestion from a psychologist, or by incorporation of the experiences of others into one’s own autobiography planted (Loftus, 1993). Although false memories of ones childhood can be implanted, it does not imply that all memories that arise after suggestion are necessarily false, although the experimental work on false memory creation raises doubt about the validity of long buried memories such as repeated trauma, but it in no way disproves them. Even with the most experienced evaluator, it is difficult to differentiate true memories from ones that are suggestively planted (Loftus, 1997). True memories represent events as they really occurred, whereas false memories shade, distort or entirely misrepresent events as they really happened. Research on memory distortion indicates that memory is not at all like a mechanical recording device. The original experience is not stored as some veridical trace of what was out there but, rather, is the result of interpretive processes of perception and comprehension. The intriguing picture of memory that emerges is one of a powerful, adaptively important and usually reliable psychological process that sometimes is completely wrong (Hunt & Ellis, 2004). References Arndt, J. (2010). The role of memory activation in creating false memories of encoding context. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36(1), 66-79. Chan, C. K. J., McDermott, B. K., Watson, M. J., & Gallo, A. D. ( 2005). The importance of material-processing interactions in inducing false memories. Journal of Memory & Cognition, 33 (3) 389-395. Dodd, M. D., & MacLeod, C. M. (2004). False recognition without intentional learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 137-142. Gallo, A. D., McDermott, B. K., Percer, M. J., & Roediger, L. H. III. (2001). Modality Effects in False Recall and False Recognition. 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