Elizabeth F. Loftus
This Wednesday, October 22, the University of Arizona law school co-hosts an event with cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus. Speaking on her topic “The Memory Factory,” Loftus explores “how the mind is a ‘memory factory,’ one that can construct a richly detailed and emotionally vivid story, believed sincerely by the speaker although it is entirely false.”
Often described as a memory expert, Loftus’s own university page describes her own work this way: “Her experiments reveal how memories can be changed by things that we are told. Facts, ideas, suggestions and other post-event information can modify our memories. The legal field, so reliant on memories, has been a significant application of the memory research.”
You are likely familiar with her work via the pitched “memory wars” that waged in legal circles. Through her research on “the malleability of human memory,” Loftus examined eyewitness memory and what was called “the misinformation effect.” Numerous cases and headlines over the years have centered on how false and recovered memories may be created, even inadvertently; those dialogues played out most notoriously in childhood sexual abuse cases.
The free event is open to the public and does not require registration (though seating may be limited).
When: Wednesday, October 22, 7:00 pm (doors at 6:00)
Where: Ares Auditorium (room 164), James E. Rogers College of Law, 1201 E. Speedway, Tucson
As the organizers say, Loftus’s presentation is “part of ‘The Mind & The Law’ Lecture Series sponsored by the UA’s College of Science, the School of Mind, Brain, and Behavior’s Cognitive Science Program and the James E. Rogers College of Law.”
More information on the series is available here.
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