What Is The Difference Between Loftus And Her Research On Human Memory

Improved Essays
This chapter focuses on Elizabeth Loftus and her research on human memory. Based on a multitude of cases of child abuse, Loftus believed that people were wrongly convicted based on false childhood memories. In order to prove this notion, she decided to conduct an experiment in where she had 24 student participants and Loftus attempted to insert a fake memory of being lost in a mall. Each one of the participants received a book from Loftus, which contained three accounts of past real memories along with one fake memory about the subject being lost in the mall. Then, the participants came to her lab and read the booklets and they were asked to talk more about the specific experiences. If one of the subjects did not know a memory, they could

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Mr. S was born with an extraordinary memory which had both negative and positive effects on his life. Although he had a great memory, he also utilized mnemonic devices to help him recall lists up to 75 numbers. This could be seen as a gift and as a curse. Mr.S was able to remember experiences and lists vividly. Although he has a great memory, Mr. S had difficulty remembering actual information.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    To begin, columnist, Dana Dovey in her article “Glory Days: Memories Strongest From Age 15 to 25, Study Suggests” (2016) asserts the idea that memories are the clearest during these “Glory Days”. Dovey affirms this idea by using ethos or the credibility of psychologists like Akira O’Connor, Chris Moulin, and Clare Rathbone. Additionally, Dovey also affirms that memories are clearer in the “Glory Days” by explaining the reason why they are clearer in a sophisticated tone, yet one that any average person that has no neurological background could understand. Dovey published this article in order to expose the truth about memories. Consequently, Dovey makes a connection with the audience that makes them feel as though, she is a well-researched journalist, from all of the well-credited sources provided.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In comparison, recalling memory can be an extremely complicated process; not only the memory of the fact itself, but also ways of interpreting the memory are required to recall memories. Especially when interpreting…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Elizabeth Loftus Theory

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One of the principals that define the cognitive level of analysis is humans are information processors, and mental processes guide our behavior. Elizabeth Loftus was concerned with how information following an event can affect an eyewitness’s account of an event. She was mainly researching the impact of how questions are worded and why leading questions can “reshape” or change the way we remember a certain event. Her theory was that she could alter a person’s memory of an event by simply presenting it to the participant carefully. Loftus and Palmer (1974) tested the way the wording of questions and information subsequent to a certain event can change the way someone remembers it with a video and a leading, carefully worded questions.…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Research Paper On Loftus

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Loftus is one of the leading researchers in memory reconstruction and eyewitness inaccuracy. Memory reconstruction can be critical during the testimony of an eyewitness. Throughout Loftus's experiments she asked direct and false presupposition, must be true for the question to make sense, questions. New false information incorporated into a question may manipulate one into thinking an event occurred when it did not. For example, in experiment 3, participants watched a short film of a car accident involving a white sports car then completed a questionnaire.…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many people tend to remember things that didn’t happen or remember them differently from the way they really and that is what we call false memories. This is something Elizabeth Lotus had studied about. She begins her debriefing by starting with a story of Steve Titus who was arrested back in 1980 because he had slightly matched a physical description, and drove a similar car, to a man who had raped a woman in the area. The police officer who had pulled him over had taken a picture of Titus and put it in a photo lineup experiment, they later showed it to the victim, which the police had informed consent, and she pointed to Titus’ photo saying, “That one’s the closest.” With that said, the police had Titus go into trial for rape.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Furthermore, Loftus observes that a simple insinuation that an individual was witnessed in a particular act can cause the individual to admit to the act when in fact they are guiltless. The article emphasizes that “false memories” can be constructed when there is anxiety caused by demands to recall an event, coercion to imagine an event when difficulty in transporting the recollection to conscious awareness is experienced, and direction to discount a recalled event as being true or false. Conversely, the author shows this compilation of data does not negate or find every recollection inspired by promptings, fictitious. The article conveys that verification of events and recollections is imperative. Loftus confirms that investigation into the vulnerability and immunity of individuals regarding implanted memories needs to continue.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The unusual thing was Eileen’s memory did not come back until one afternoon in 1989 while playing with her two-year-old son. Fragments started to return of what happened. She remembered the look of betrayal in Susie’s eyes, her father sexually assaulting Susie, Susie covered in blood. The jury impressed with Eileen’s detailed and confident memories of the events convicted her father of first-degree murder. But, this case along with others brings the questions of the authenticity of repressed memories.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Reality of Repressed Memories Elizabeth F. Loftus University of Washington Keywords; repressed memories, delayed discovery doctrine, False Memory Syndrome Foundation Abstract One of the most unforgettable concepts in the mid 80’s early 90’s would be repressed memories. Repressed memories would store disturbing events that occur in our lives, that traumatic event can resurface twenty to forty years down the road. In the early 1990’s there was a rise for repressed memory and claims of childhood sex abuse that were repressed for years (Loftus, Elizabeth 1993).…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Twin of the Truth is One’s Memories Memories are a recollection of experiences one recalls and keeps with them in their hearts and mind. Kan Gan’s interactive novel, To The Moon, primarily illustrates the differentiation of truth and memory throughout the entire play. Gan establishes that a memory is not necessarily the truth, even though one may gain greater happiness from it. Some memories are fabricated by people to remember happier times and to forget the worst.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Elizabeth Loftus has conducted a number of studies on memory and on how memory can be affected; in this article she discusses repressed memories. Loftus focuses on repressed memories of sexual abuse, however she makes it plain that she is not discussing memories that individuals have had since an incident occurred and never disclosed, but she is discussing memories that before going to a therapist an individual had not had before. In her article Loftus discusses techniques that are used to recover memories, these techniques include sexual dream interpretation, guided visualization and suggestive questions. All of the techniques described have contributed to the supposed recovery of repressed memories that the individual had no idea existed. It is unclear how common true repressed memories are but, according to Loftus, there is not much evidence of repressed memories being accurate.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    She told parents to tell their adult children that when they were younger they were lost in a shopping mall. They were very unhappy and scared and eventually had to be rescued by an elderly woman. After hearing this story, the subjects responded with a detailed story about how they were lost even providing detailed physical descriptions of the woman who rescued them (CNN Guilt by Memory). Although being lost in a shopping mall is not as traumatic as routine sexual abuse, this experiment still showed how easily manipulated our memory can…

    • 1782 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Confessions are one of the most damning types of evidence in criminal trials. While convictions cannot be based on confessions alone, they are still relied on in litigation (Schwartzbach, 2016). Not all confessions are true, however, even if a person remembers committing the crime. Julia Shaw and Stephen Porter published a study in 2015 that examined the general hypothesis: It is possible to create a false memory of committing a crime. They used a sample of 60 undergraduate students to test the following specific hypothesis: False memories of committing a crime along with police contact while in adolescence can be developed by young adults in an experimental setting.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    1. Differentiate between repressed memories, recovered memories, and false memories. What does the research support? Repressed memories are memories that are kept hidden from yourself.…

    • 2112 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Distortion Of Memory

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Memory is the encoding, storage and retrieval of past events and experiences, it is present in the short term memory store and then transferred to the long term memory store. The retrieval of memory isn’t always accurate as memories become distorted over time. The distortion of these memories are due to some influencing factors such as language, age, reconstructive errors and emotion. Taking all these factors into consideration leads to the point that memory is only to some extent reliable. Language plays a big role in how we remember, language is used to convey how we remembered the event but it is also a influence on how we remembered the event.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays