Elizabeth LoftusVICTORIA ARMIJO

Early life

Born on October 16, 1944 in Los Angeles, CA

Grew up in Bel Air, CA.

Mother- Rebecca Fishman Worked as a librarian

Died in a drowning accident when Elizabeth was 14 in 1968.

Father- Sidney Fishman Worked as a U.S. Army Physician

Schooling

Bachelors of Arts

In Mathematics and Psychology

Planned on becoming a math teacher

UCLA

Graduated in 1966

Master of Arts and PhD

Mathematical Psychology

Stanford

MA in 1967 and PhD in 1970

Grad. School

Colleagues voted her as least likely to succeed as a psychologist

Proved them wrong and aced all of her first-year courses

Mentor job as a “big sister” for first-year students Geoff Loftus

Engaged 3 months later

Married that following June of 1968

Grad. School

Worked with the “Pat Suppes Machine” Wrote arithmetic problems

No personal interest

1969- things changed and Loftus began working with Jon Freedman, a social psychologist. PhD dissertation first based on the Suppes

Machine but her interest shifted to the structure of semantic memory.

Research with Freedman

Research on semantic memory Measured how quickly answers could be retrieved

to various questions

Found that answers to category-then-property questions (Fruit-P) were retrieved 250 milliseconds quicker than with the reverse ordering of the cues (P-Fruit)

Results showed that people’s semantic memory is likely organized around object categories rather than properties

Work Life

Offered a position by the New School for Social Research. Worked as an Assistant Professor and Graduate

Faculty

Summer of 1970- moved to Manhattan and started work at New School in fall 1970.

Work Life

1972- Geoff joined the faculty at University of Washington & Elizabeth joined him Moved to Seattle

Worked at the University of Washington as Assistant, Associate, and then Full Professor.

Adjunct Professor of Law

Loftus eventually moved up to Affiliate Professor for the Psychology department and School of Law at University of Washington

The Misinformation Effect

Loftus theorized that memory is prone to errors and can easily be altered and molded.

A person’s memory can be changed by what they are told or how questions are asked.

Witnesses are also easily influenced by misinformation that is provided by a credible source.

Misinformation Effect

“Misinformation effects increase with delays between the witnessed event and exposure to misinformation, presumably because memory for the original event becomes weaker over time.”

Loftus and Palmer suggested that two kinds of information go into a person's memory. The first information is the perception of the original event and the second information is what is learned after the event has taken place.

Car Accident Study

The U.S. Department of Transportation funded grants to Loftus and Palmer to research motor vehicle accidents and study memory distortion.

Showed participants a film of a car crash Asked “Did you see a broken headlight?” or “Did

you see the broken headlight?”

How can post-event information distort memory?

Changing one word in a question could distort memory recollections

Car Accident Study cont.

Titled “Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction”

Replaced words in questions “How fast were the cars going when they

(smashed/hit/bumped/collided) each other?”

Participants with “smash or hit” recalled seeing broken glass when none was present.

The estimated speed was affected by the verb used in the question

Car Accident cont.

Formed conclusions that eyewitness testimony may be biased by the way questions are asked.

Loftus and Palmer formed 2 conclusions

1. Response-bias factors- misleading information influenced answer given

2. The memory representation is altered- verb changes a person’s perception of the accident

Stop v. Yield

Participants witnessed an accident involved at an intersection with a stop sign

Half the participants received suggestions that the traffic sign was a yield sign

When asked later what traffic sign they remembered, those given the suggestion claimed they remembered seeing a yield sign.

Those who did not receive the suggestion were much more accurate in remembering a stop sign.

False Memories

Believes there is a high probability that someone can implant a false memory into another person’s memory.

This happened to her- she was told that she had found her mom in the pool after her mom drowned Began to recall memories and details from that event

It was actually her aunt that found her mom, not her.

Memories for events that had never even taken place- also known as repressed memories

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB2OegI6wvI

4:21-6:43

Lost in the Mall

Participants given a sheet of paper with 3 memories on it (2 real memories, 1 implanted false memory of being lost in a mall)

The false memory needed to be something mildly traumatic, but not enough to cause long-term damage

On a scale of 1-11 how confident they were in deciding whether or not that event happened. If it did happen, asked to write down as many

details they remember

Lost in the Mall

Results showed that 25% of participants could remember details about being lost in a shopping mall.

Participants failed to believe that this memory was actually false when given the debriefing.

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQr_IJvYzbA

Bugs Bunny Study

Participants were told they were going to evaluate advertisements

Divided into 4 groups- asked to read a printed ad for Disneyland Group 1- ad with no cartoons

Group 2- same ad but had a cardboard cut out of Bugs Bunny in the room

Group 3- fake Disneyland ad featuring Bugs Bunny

Group 4- both the fake ad and the cardboard cut out

Bugs Bunny Study

Participants were then asked if they have ever met Bugs Bunny at Disneyland before and if they shook his hand

Participants who read fake ad- 62% said they shook his hand, 46% remembered hugging him.

However, this isn’t even possible because Bugs Bunny isn’t a Disney character, he’s a Warner Bros. character.

Common Cents

http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/common_cents/

Eyewitness Testimony

Loftus testified in court about her studies and the nature of eyewitness memory.

It all began in 1974 when she assisted a public defender in a murder trial explaining how her studies on memory distortion could be applied to this case- defendant was acquitted.

She has since testified in over 250 cases and consulted on many more

Steve Titus

17 year old girl raped after hitch hiking and taking a ride from a stranger

Described her rapist as 25-30 years old, 6 ft. tall, full beard, and shoulder-length, light-brown hair. He wore a 3 piece cream-colored suit and drove a

royal blue compact model car with temporary plates in rear view mirror

Police spotted a light-blue Chevette with temporary plates outside a restaurant and waited to pull him over after he left the restaurant

Steve Titus

Police pulled steve over asking what he did all day and took a photo of Steve then he was free to go

Showed victim pictures of men with the description and Steve’s picture- “This one is the closest”

Arrested Steve and went ahead with the case

Steve Titus

Facts- Couldn’t have fit into his schedule

Long-distance phone call to prove

Tire marks didn’t match his car

No physical evidence besides eyewitness identification

Results

Ted Bundy

Young girl kidnapped at Sears by “fake” police officer

9 months later- Bundy arrested on a traffic charge for having ski mask, ice pick, handcuffs, and crowbar in car

Facts- 25-30 years old, medium mustache (Bundy didn’t

have a mustache)

Light blue or white Volkswagen

No physical evidence only eyewitness identification

Ted Bundy

Police showed victim a line up of pictures with Bundy’s picture- “I guess it looks like him”

Then shown an ID picture of Bundy and she has a stronger identification

Loftus called to testify Unconscious Transference

Stress on memory

Results

Tyrone Briggs

Multiple cases of robbery of young professional women.

One case- offender hit victim in head & brought her to a vacant apartment and attempted to rape her until a man (Karl Vance) stopped him

Police and victim makes a sketch and lady identifies as her neighbor, Tyrone.

Tyrone is arrested on outstanding warrant

Tyrone Briggs

Victim’s description

Afro

25-30 years old

Never said anything about a mole

Never said anything about a stutter

Yellow-crooked teeth

Ski jump nose

Tyrone Briggs

Jeri curls

19 years old

Mole

Really bad stutter

White-straight teeth

Large nose

Tyrone Briggs

All 5 victims and Karl Vance identify Tyrone as the offender from pictures

In person line up- process of elimination

Picture line up #2- put mole on all pictures- this plants a memory into victim’s mind that the offender really did have a mole.

In person line up #2- positively ID Tryone

Tyrone Briggs

1st trial- 11 to 1 on one point and 10 to 2 for acquittal = mistrial

2nd trial- guilty

New information of new attacker based on sketch and bloody shoe print from the vacant apartment

3rd trial- 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal = case dismissed

Present Life

Loftus currently teaches at the University of California- Irvine

1991- Elizabeth and Geoff divorce

Never had kids

Facts (innocence project) 329 post-conviction DNA exonerations

Between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent

Discussion

Based on Elizabeth’s expert testimony, what is your opinion on eyewitness testimony? Do you think eyewitness testimony is successful in helping determine innocence or guilt?

Do you think our society is so reliant on the CSI effect (exaggeration on the need for physical evidence to charge offenders based on crime TV shows) as members of the jury?