Dr. Elizabeth Loftus

Dr. Loftus & Unreliable Memories

As a Ph.D. student, the young Elizabeth Loftus wasn't captivated by calculus: "I used to sit in the back of the seminars, kind of bored, writing letters to my Uncle Joe, or hemming skirts or whatever". The only girl enrolled on Stanford's mathematical psychology graduate program, she was voted the least likely to succeed in psychology by her peers, but she went on to become one of the most highly cited psychologists of all time – and also one of the most controversial.

The so-called "memory wars" began in 1990, when Loftus got a call from a lawyer defending George Franklin. Franklin's daughter accused him of murdering her best friend decades earlier, after apparently recovering long-lost memories of the crime during therapy. "There I was," says Loftus, "witnessing the conviction of a man based on nothing more than the claim of a repressed memory." Intrigued, she scoured the scientific literature and, failing to find any convincing evidence for the claim that traumatic memories can be buried and recovered, testified to that effect in the trial.

Franklin was convicted nevertheless, and spent 5 years in jail, before doubts over the validity of his daughter's testimony were raised, and his conviction was overturned. Meanwhile, dozens of other people made similar claims, and Loftus became embroiled in an argument between therapists who believed that such claims should be believed, and the psychologists, who said that such memories are likely to be false. (source)

30 Years of Memory Research

Dr. Loftus has been researching and publishing about memory for over thirty years, and across all of her studies, one finding has been very consistent: memories are unreliable. She has received praise and criticism for her work, particularly when it comes to 'recovered' memories of childhood abuse, but her experience with the topic isn't entirely academic. She had her own experience with unreliable memory as an adult:

"At a family gathering for her 44th birthday, Loftus's uncle told her that she had been the one to find her mother's body floating in the pool after a drowning accident. Before that, she had remembered very little about the incident, but after her uncle's comment, the details suddenly began to come back.

A few days later, she discovered that her uncle had been mistaken and that it was actually her aunt who discovered her mother after the drowning. All it took to trigger false memories was a simple comment from a family member, illustrating how easily human memory can be influenced by suggestion."

As you learn about her research, take a moment to reflect on what her findings might mean. There are implications for all areas of psychology and life -- for instance, how might depression impact our memories of ourselves, and how could that make the situation better or worse? How about issues with information on the internet and 'fake news'? Keep these questions in mind as you keep reading, we'll come back to them in the reflection section at the end!

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Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction

I've linked the first page and a half from one of Dr. Loftus' famous studies below. Read through the text, focusing specifically on the Method and Results sections. As you read, try to find a balance between reading for understanding and reading for detail. Research articles are packed with information, so often it's more useful to get a big-picture understanding that you can use to guide future readings. Test your understanding by answering the following questions without looking back at the reading:

Are people good at estimating the speed a vehicle is traveling? What evidence does this article provide to support your conclusion?
What was the condition or manipulation used in the first experiment?
How does the second experiment build upon the findings from the first one?
Picture yourself explaining the study and results to an eight-year-old. Can you do it? If so, you're in good shape!

Reflection Questions

Dr. Loftus' research is fascinating, but it isn't exactly new. Do you think the public knows about her findings? If you had to present some of her research to a group of laypeople -- such as your friends or family members -- what kind of reaction do you think you would get?
What's a research question that you would be interested in asking about memory? For a sample question, something like the following would work: "After reading the comments on a Facebook post or news article, how well do people remember what was said? Is this impacted by their previous views?"

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