Do you remember what you ate for breakfast on Monday? Taking you some time to dredge it up? Last night in Jordan Hall, UC-Irvine Prof. Elizabeth Loftus spoke about the unreliability and vulnerability of memory during a Symbolic Systems Department-sponsored presentation on false memories.

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Joel Lewenstein

UC-Irvine Prof. Elizabeth Loftus unveils her latest research findings on false memories in Jordan Hall at a speaker event sponsored by the symbolic systems department. Students expressed mixed opinions on the event.

“False memory” is the term researchers use to define an imaginary situation or experience from an individual’s past that a person remembers having occurred. In many cases, false memories are embedded in a subject’s mind through suggestion or persuasion, a phenomenon known as “repressed memory recovery” that often occurs during psychotherapy.

According to Loftus, the human mind’s vulnerability to false memory impression is far greater than often believed.

“Exposing people to misinformation about incidences that they perhaps did experience can [significantly change] the details,” she said.

Loftus cited examples of researchers using suggestive methods to imprint subjects with memories ranging from getting lost in a mall as a child to being physically molested by Pluto the dog at Disneyland.

The procedure is often successful — 20 to 40 percent of participants in the “lost-in-the mall” scenario recalled an event that never actually occurred.

Such false memories often have tragic consequences — “eyewitness error” is a leading cause of imprisonment of wrongfully-accused criminals, Loftus said. She also linked false memories to women who go through psychoanalysis that makes them believe that they have repressed memories of being sexually molested by family members.

“There’s no real scientific evidence,” Loftus said, “that we can take years of brutalization and bury them in the subconscious.”

Despite their setbacks, however, Loftus expressed measured optimism about false memories. She cited one experiment in which participants were duped into thinking they had memories of disliking strawberry ice cream as children. These findings, Loftus said, could lead to new weight-loss programs to combat rising obesity.

Doug Morrison ‘09 said the presentation made him rethink his views on eyewitness testimony.

“I thought it was really good stuff,” he said. “It convinced me that you can’t trust eyewitnesses as much as our legal system currently does.”

Ryan Mead ‘07 said he enjoyed the presentation but thought the research echoed much of what he had heard before.

“[Loftus’ findings] seemed pretty credible,” said Mead. “I’ve taken classes that presented similar findings and so it wasn’t really news to me.”