description Elizabeth Loftus Overview
Elizabeth Loftus is an American cognitive psychologist known for experimental research on human memory and eyewitness testimony. Her studies of the misinformation effect showed that information presented after an event can alter a person's later recollection of it. She has also examined false memories and has applied memory research to legal disputes involving eyewitness identification and claims about recovered recollections.
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Elizabeth Loftus ranks #12 of 228 in the Psychologist ranking, behind Edward Thorndike, ahead of Mary Ainsworth.
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What is Elizabeth Loftus's misinformation effect?
The misinformation effect occurs when misleading information introduced after an event changes a person's later report of that event. Loftus's experiments showed that wording and post-event suggestions can alter eyewitness recollection.
What happened in Loftus and Palmer's car-crash experiment?
In the 1974 study, participants watched traffic-accident footage and received questions using verbs such as hit or smashed. The verb affected their speed estimates, demonstrating that a leading question can influence remembered details.
What was the purpose of the lost-in-the-mall study?
The study by Elizabeth Loftus and Jacqueline Pickrell tested whether suggestion could encourage a person to accept a childhood event that had not happened. It was published in the 1990s and became influential, as well as controversial, in debates over implanted autobiographical memories.
Why is Loftus's work important in criminal trials?
Her research explains how stress, leading questions, repeated interviews, and later information can affect eyewitness evidence. Loftus has appeared as an expert witness in numerous prominent cases, but her work does not mean that every disputed memory is false.
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