Elizabeth Loftus

Elizabeth Loftus: Psychology

Elizabeth Loftus has spent most of her career studying the psychological and legal implications of false memories. She is most famed for her ideas on manipulating memories through things we are told or exposure to misinformation. Loftus's “lost-in-the-mall” procedure in psychology helped investigate the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies and the negative impacts of misinformation.

As a psychology graduate student, Elizabeth Loftus had some experience studying human memory (semantic memory), but she desired something with more social significance and practical use. As a result, Loftus looked into eyewitness testimonies and legal applications of psychology.

Due to the controversial nature of her psychological research, Loftus has also attracted a fair amount of criticism. A woman who claimed her mother sexually abused her as a child even sued Loftus after Loftus published a controversial expose in which she believed the mother didn't commit the abuse. Despite the controversies, Loftus proved her doubters wrong as she fought for her work and expertise.

Elizabeth Loftus: Contribution to Psychology

Elizabeth Loftus earned the 58th spot (and the top-ranked woman) among the 100 most influential in psychology, alongside Freud, Skinner, and Piaget. Her studies on memory, eyewitness testimony, and courtroom procedures made her known as one of the most important researchers in psychology.

Loftus's psychology research revealed that our memories might not be as reliable as we think. She successfully planted false memories, giving insight into the complexities of memory significant to forensic and cognitive psychology. Loftus's work also questioned the accuracy of repressed memories and eyewitness testimonies, allowing for substantial contributions to the legal applications of psychology.

Loftus believed that although people can forget traumatic experiences, not all recovered memories of abuse are accurate because of memory distortion. An example of memory distortion is through suggestion.

Elizabeth Loftus: Experiment

Elizabeth Loftus's knowledge of memory, interest in psychology, and love of crime fiction led to a series of experiments examining a unique and controversial part of human memory. One of them is her well-known “lost in a shopping mall” false memory experiment. But first, let's look at one of Loftus's earlier studies in psychology.

In 1974, Loftus studied how human memory can be distorted by post-event information, focusing on automobile accidents. In her research, Loftus discovered that substituting a more suggestive word for a neutral one in a question can alter a witness's memory.

Loftus thought eyewitness testimonies alone shouldn't convict someone. Eyewitness testimonies and memory distortion remained her focus in psychology for the next 15 years.

Elizabeth Loftus: False Memory Experiment

Elizabeth Loftus took her research on memory further when she became interested in the psychology of repressed memories. She took it as a challenge to discover the psychology behind false memories and their effect on what we think and do next.

Elizabeth Loftus: False Memory Experiment – Lost in a Shopping Mall

Elizabeth Loftus wondered if it was possible to make a person remember something that didn't happen and, if so, how she could do that ethically. Loftus finally came up with the idea of making the participants believe they got lost in a shopping mall when they were children, even if it never happened.

Kid squatting on the floor, pexels.com

Chris, a 14-year-old boy

One of Elizabeth Loftus' initial successes with false memory implantation involved a 14-year-old boy named Chris. His mother and older brother, Jim, detailed Chris's three childhood experiences with them. Jim, then, helped in making up one fake incident.

The fake memory involved Chris being lost at his family's go-to shopping mall in Spokane, Washington, when he was five. He cried a lot when an older man came to his rescue and took him back to his family. Loftus instructed Chris to write daily over five days about the four events, including any details that come to mind. He wrote “I don't remember” if he couldn't think of more information.

In his re-interview with Loftus, he scored the false memory as 8 (second highest) and two actual memories as 1 (not clear) and 5. He described getting lost in a toy store and being rescued by a bald, glasses-wearing man in a blue flannel shirt. Loftus then revealed to him that one of the memories was false. Can you guess which memory he identified as wrong? Believe it or not, he chose one of the actual memories as false!

More false memory experiments

Elizabeth Loftus's critics express concern over the possibility of implanted false memories as actual experiences that have only recently been recovered from memory by suggestive incorrect information.

Bugs Bunny, commons.wikimedia.org

For this reason, Loftus and colleagues sought another study involving impossible false memories. They showed participants a fake Disney ad starring Bugs Bunny, eliciting false memories of shaking hands with Bugs Bunny at a Disney resort. Around 16% of participants “remembered” this fake memory, with increasing false beliefs, as seen in another study when the ad included a photo of Bugs Bunny instead of only making a verbal reference to the character.

Elizabeth Loftus: Theory

Elizabeth Loftus's memory research led her to conclude that human memory can be manipulated by any information, such as misinformation or suggestive ideas.

Elizabeth Loftus: Theory – Misinformation Effect

Loftus defined this phenomenon in psychology as a change of memories of past events due to exposure to false information. People may often claim details about an event they saw that weren't there.

Elizabeth Loftus: Theory – Discrepancy Detection Principle

When are people vulnerable to the harmful effects of misinformation? According to Elizabeth Loftus, memory distortion is less likely if people notice differences between misinformation and their original memory. Even if a person sees the difference, however, this principle does not make it impossible for false memories to be made.