Elizabeth Loftus

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Elizabeth Loftus (2011)

Elizabeth F. Loftus (* 1944 in Los Angeles ) is an American psychologist . In her work she dealt with human memory and especially the credibility of eyewitness accounts. Loftus is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation .

Life

Loftus graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a BA in mathematics and psychology in 1966 and an MA in 1967 from Stanford University . Also at Stanford University, she received her Ph.D. PhD in psychology .

She is a professor at the University of California, Irvine . She is also an Affiliate Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Law at the University of Washington in Seattle .

For many years she was a member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). It resigned its membership on January 16, 1996 on the grounds that it had strayed far from scientific thinking.

Loftus has received six honorary doctorates and numerous research awards and other awards. In 2003 Loftus was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 2004 to the National Academy of Sciences . In 2005 she was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2006 to the American Philosophical Society . In 2016 she was awarded the John Maddox Prize for her commitment to sound science for the common good, despite strong personal hostility.

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Elizabeth Loftus has conducted numerous experiments on human memory that show that our memories can be influenced by suggestion and post-event information, resulting in confabulation and false memories .

Experiments

Lost in the mall

Lost in the mall is one of her most famous experiments. The subjects were short reports on experiences in childhood that were allegedly written by relatives, given. They were supposed to remember them again, but they did not know that one of these stories was wrong: The test subject is said to have lost his way in a shopping mall between the ages of 5 and 6 and then been rescued by an adult. 6 out of 24 test persons claimed to be able to remember it, although this event never took place.

Bugs Bunny in Disneyland

Elizabeth Loftus constructed an experiment in which participants who had been to Disneyland in their past were persuaded to meet the character Bugs Bunny . They could then vividly remember the scene. That this meeting never happened, results from the fact that the character belongs to Warner Brothers and is therefore not represented in Disneyland.

Expert opinions in court and lectures for judges

Loftus has advised on over 250 legal cases relating to witness memory issues. The activity had its origin in one of her publications from 1974, after which she was invited by lawyers and judges as a consultant and for lectures.

One of the most famous legal proceedings in which she was called in as an expert witness was the trial of the abuse allegations at the McMartin preschool .

Fonts

Loftus has published 22 scientific books and more than 500 articles in scientific journals as an author or co-author (as of 2012). Her fourth book, Eyewitness Testimony , won the American Psychological Association's National Media Award in 1980 .

  • with Geoffrey R. Loftus: Human Memory: The Processing of Information . Psychology Press, 1976
  • Eyewitness testimony . Harvard University Press, 1979, ISBN 0-674-28777-0
  • Memory: Surprising New Insights into How We Remember and Why We Forget . Addison-Wesley, 1980
  • with Katherine Ketcham: Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial . St. Martin's Press (1991) ISBN 0-312-08455-2
  • with Katherine Ketcham: The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse . St Martin's Press, 1994, ISBN 0-312-14123-8
  • with Katherine Ketcham: The therapy memory: on the myth of repression in accusations of sexual abuse , Verlag Klein, 1995, 360 pp. ISBN 3-89521-028-5
  • False Memories , Spectrum of Science 1-1998, page 63ff, online .
  • with Gary L. Wells as editor: Eyewitness Testimony: Psychological Perspectives . Cambridge University Press, 2004
  • with James M. Doyle, Jennifer E. Dysart: Eyewitness Testimony: Civil and Criminal . LexisNexis, 4th edition, 2007

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ PT Staff: Dispatch the memory war ; online in Psychology Today , May 1, 1996 (accessed November 26, 2014).
  2. ^ Member History: Elizabeth F. Loftus. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 15, 2018 (with biographical notes).
  3. ↑ Ian Sample, 'We can't let the bullies win': Elizabeth Loftus awarded 2016 John Maddox Prize in: The Guardian , November 17, 2016, accessed November 17, 2016
  4. ↑ Elizabeth Loftus: Lost in the mall. Misrepresentations and misunderstandings . In: Ethics & Behavior. 1999, 9, pp. 51-60.
  5. ↑ Werner Stangl : Forgetting - Some research results on remembering and on the "False Memory Syndrome" - Article on the False Memory Syndrome
  6. ^ Robert Sternberg: Cognitive Psychology . Cengage Learning, 2008, ISBN 978-0-495-50629-4 , pp. 240–241 ( excerpt (Google) )
  7. ^ A b Amy Wilson: War & Remembrance. Controversy is a constant for memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus, newly installed at UCI . Orange County Register, Nov. 3, 2002, online .
  8. ^ GH Bower: Tracking the birth of a star, in: M. Garry, H. Hayne (Eds.): Do Justice and Let the Sky Fall: Elizabeth F. Loftus and Her Contributions to Science, Law, and Academic Freedom , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ (USA), 2006, 229. S, ISBN 0-8058-5232-8 , pp. 15-25.
  9. ↑ Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida / USA: Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus Speaks on Campus About "Memory Under the Influence" , February 9, 2012, accessed November 25, 2014 ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fcas.nova.edu
personal data
SURNAME Loftus, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Loftus, Elizabeth F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles