Elizabeth F. Loftus - PowerPoint Presentation

Elizabeth F. Loftus By: Heather Ruplinger

Beth Now “The most horrifying idea is that what we believe with all our hearts is not necessarily the truth” (Loftus, 1996) 71 years old Living in California Has no children

Beth Then Picture: Beth as a baby with her mother Born October 16, 1944 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaFull name is Elizabeth Jane Fishman Father, Sidney, was a doctor Mother, Rebecca, was a librarian She has 2 brothers Her family was Jewish She grew up in Bel Air, California

Beth as a Child and Adolescent Her baby sitter molested her when she was 6She never told her parents about this She never forgot this, but put it behind her She kept a diary that she did not want people to read A boyfriend broke up with her because she was Jewish She lied to try and get him back This lie disturbs Beth when she thinks back on it

The Most Tragic Day of Her Life July 10, 1959Beth was only 14 years oldHer mother was found drowned in a swimming pool Accident or suicide? Her father was cold and her mother suffered from depression Beth’s memories of this day 30 years later

After Her Mother’s Death She wrote letters to her for a year after her death, saying how much she missed her She reprimanded herself for not expressing her love for her mother when it mattered "MY GREATEST REGRET: Many nights, such as tonight, September 23, 1959, I lie awake and think about my mother. Always, I start to cry, and my thoughts trace back to the days when she was alive and ill. She would be watching TV and ask me to come sit by her. 'I'm busy now,' was my usual reply. Other times, she would be in my room, and we would get in fights because she wouldn't leave. Oh, how I hate myself for that! With a little bit of kindness from her only daughter she might have been so much happier." 2 years after her death, her home was destroyed by a fire The location of her diaries troubled her the most Her father remarried, and she had 3 children of her own

College at UCLA She became an obsessive achiever She majored in math because that was the one thing her and her father could talk aboutThis is where she discovered psychology, she took a psych class as an elective and enjoyed the material so much B.F. Skinner’s experiments fascinated her Double majored in math and psychology Received her BA in 1966 with highest honors

College at Stanford, 1st Year August 1966: She entered Stanford’s graduate program in mathematical psychology Only woman Friday seminar Covert poll done by classmates Mathematical psychology wasn’t keeping her interest Aced all her classes Received her MA in 1967

College at Stanford, 2nd Year Assigned the job of mentoring first year student Geoff LoftusJune 30, 1968, they got married 1 day honeymoon She thought she would serve her husband’s career But maybe not

College at Stanford, 3rd Year In charge of her own study on semantic memoryThrilled, especially since she got to use humans and not rats this time Her study was the “Yellow Fruit” study, and the goal was to try to find out how people’s brains stored and retrieved words 1970: Received her PhD

Beth’s Research Worthwhile? 1970-1973: She worked at New School for Social Research in New York cityHer cousin wasn’t impressed with what she had discovered from her experiments thus far This really affected Beth

Beth and Geoff 1972: Geoff joined faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle1973: Beth offered a position there as well, but the choice to go there wasn’t as easy as you might think, since she was also offered a position at Harvard

New Study: Department of Transportation 1974: Received funding to look at car accidents, something with greater social relevance Study done with John PalmerShowed subjects film of car accident, then quizzed them on what they saw She altered the wording of the questions between subjects, however In this way, she transformed the subjects’ memories of what they saw She also found that this didn’t just have an immediate effect on their memory; it also affected their answers to questions posed later

June 3, 1975 On this day her father died of cancer On this day Beth also got to provide Washington State’s first expert testimony on eyewitness identification, something she had been trying to do for the past year She wanted to testify so that innocent victims don’t go to prison and that the family’s unity can remain intact

Oprah Case of Eileen Franklin accusing her father George Franklin of sexually abusing her as a child and murdering an 8 year old girl named Susie Nason 20 years earlierHe was convicted based solely off of his daughter’s repressed and de-repressed memories Beth was invited to the Oprah Winfrey show to tell her side of the case She flew out there the day before her birthday, but then told that Eileen refused to show if Beth was there Beth had to sit in the audience

Lost-In-The-Mall Study She wanted to do a study where she planted entirely false childhood memories, so came up with a lost-in-the-mall scenarioShe gave this as an assignment to her class first One of her students was successful So, she conducted the formal experiment

Formal Lost-In-The-Mall Study Subjects given short narratives of childhood experiences, one of which was falseThe false narrative was getting lost in a particular shopping mall or public place A quarter of subjects adopted this belief People attacked this study, however They stated it was too common, and that it couldn’t be compared to being molested as a child So other investigators took this idea further

Some Effects of Beth’s Work Her conclusions started a memory warShe questioned repressed memoriesHer experiments became very potent evidence in court, however People started suing their therapists, parents started suing their kid’s therapists Insurance companies’ warning During this time, a lot of bad things happened to Beth; she acquired a lot of enemies

The Courage to Heal 1988: Book published, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass and Laura DavisThis book “encourages the irresponsible views that many women who were abused don’t have memories, and some never get any. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t abused, and if you think you were abused, and your life shows the symptoms, then you were” Beth helped show that what was recommended in this book was not good

Geoff and Beth Their marriage not without difficulties1991: They divorcedBeth was too in love with her work They remained close friends, however An interview with her in 1996 showed just how sad this divorce made her It also showed how her mother’s death still affects her

Innocence Project, DNA, and Beth 1992: Innocence Project foundedDNA and Beth’s work made this possible

Jane Doe Beth tried to help an accused mother she thought was innocent She gave the accusing daughter the name Jane Doe and wrote an article about this case, which involved repressed memories Jane Doe lodged a complaint about Beth to the University of Washington They gagged Beth for a 2 year period After those 2 years they exonerated her of any wrongdoing, but she left 2002: She went to University of California-Irvine Went back to doing research

Jane Doe Strikes Again 2003: Jane Doe filed a lawsuit suing Beth, her coauthor, and a colleague thanked in a footnote in the articleShe sued under her real nameBeth settled out for a nuisance fee

Beth’s When Blue File Harassment of scientists can impede others from publishing their findings The harassment she has suffered has been painful, and sometimes she wonders if all her work has been worth it But that thought is fleeting; the pursuit of truth is too important She keeps a When Blue file in order to help her deal with all of the harassment heaped onto her

Beth’s Warning Beth’s warning: “When we have mastered the false memory recipes, we will need to worry about who controls them. What brakes should be imposed on police, lawyers, advertisers? More than ever, we'll need to constantly keep in mind that memory, like liberty, is a fragile thing.”

Other Applications of Beth’s Research 2011: Beth was interviewed by Carol Tavrishttps://vimeo.com/27594471 30:05-34:45

Discussion Question #1 Why do you think people found it so hard to question eyewitness testimony?

Discussion Question #2 Would it have made a difference if she was a man?