Elizabeth Loftus is known for being a prolific scientific figure, whose work on human memory has been highly appreciated, as it shows us how the mind works by modifying memories automatically, so sometimes we cannot fully trust our memories when be mixed with other mental processes.
In this article you will find a selection of the best phrases by Elizabeth Loftus about the human being and mental processes.
Being a pioneer in this field of psychology, Elizabeth Loftus’ reflections are very interesting to better understand the human mind. Let’s see the most notable ones from this author.
1. Just because someone thinks they remember something in detail, with confidence, and with emotion, doesn’t mean it actually happened.
Explaining how the mind can trick us with our memories.
2. Through the past the future can be conditioned.
The past has the ability to influence the future.
3. False memories also have these characteristics.
False memories can feel very real.
4. To be cautious, one should not have great confidence as an absolute guarantee of anything.
The truth is never absolute there is a wide gray scale.
5. Memory works like a Wikipedia page: you can go in there and change it, but so can other people.
An interesting way to explain how memory works.
6. “False memory” is a phrase that refers to a variety of memory errors.
They function to create a filler between the gaps in memory.
7. When we remember something, we take fragments of experience, sometimes from different times and places, and put them together to construct what might seem like a memory, but is actually a construction.
It all depends on our experiences.
8. If they make you believe that you got sick from drinking something as a child, you won’t want it.
The manipulative power of imposed beliefs.
9. Therapists probably cannot do this ethically, and may have anti-deception provisions in their standards of conduct. But bad governments, bad people, have no behavioral requirements.
Talking about how people take advantage of mental manipulation.
10. In real life, as well as in experiments, people can believe things that never happened.
11. Some errors are “small,” such as misremembering words in a list that did not contain those words. Some errors are major, such as misremembering the details of a past event. Some mistakes are even bigger, like remembering entire dramatic events that never really happened.
Everyone creates their own mental errors depending on their experiences.
12. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that just because someone remembers something in great detail and tells you about it with emotion doesn’t mean it really happened.
Therefore we must base ourselves on facts that support them.
13. When we recently published a study about planting false memories among US soldiers, I was worried that we were presenting a recipe for how you can do horrible things to someone and then erase their memory.
A truth that can be used in a negative way.
14. If we stick to the errors of autobiographical memory, these can also occur in different ways.
This is because In childhood, mental processes are connected to the imagination
15. Even if it’s going to be a harmful memory, they don’t want to let it go. (This is) the reason why I sometimes get so much resistance in the work I do. Because you’re telling people that their minds may be filled with a lot more fiction than they realize. And people don’t like that.
The mind works in a particular way to block pain.
16. There are probably different processes that lead us to develop different types of memory errors.
The perception of our life can greatly influence it.
17. We all have malleable memories that can be contaminated or complemented in some way.
18. I am a psychologist. I am dedicated to cognitive psychology and study human memory. I have specialized in the field of false memories.
Talking about the profession he works in and the field of psychology he has focused on, cognitive psychology.
19. Memory, like freedom, is something fragile.
Memory is not always reliable as this researcher demonstrated with her experiments.
20. It is possible not to think about something for a long time, even something unpleasant that has happened to you. But what has been asserted in these cases of repressed memory is something, by definition, that is too extreme to be explained by ordinary forgetting and remembering.
A traumatic event can be locked away so as not to experience the same pain again.
21. The results were clear: the new environment inhibited recognition.
The environment in which we live also contributes to our way of remembering.
22. Sometimes people are not sure what happened and they just guess, but they are wrong.
A perfect example of how we fill information gaps.
23. There are individuals with an extraordinary memory of almost everything that has happened to them during their adult life. My colleagues who study them call them people with highly superior autobiographical memories.
People who are the exception in Elizabeth’s studies.
24. I say that I study memory, but then they immediately want to talk to me about a family member who has had Alzheimer’s, and I explain that no, that’s not it.
Something that happens a lot when strangers know your work.
25. They say that to move forward in life, you had to cover this memory, because it would be too painful to live with it. Then, finally, you go into therapy and break through the barrier of repression and out comes this pristine memory. But there really is no credible scientific support for that notion.
Disagreement about the process of recovering repressed memories.
26. What would you rather have? A child with obesity, heart problems, a short life, diabetes, or maybe a little false memory?
An interesting approach that puts us before a decision about life.
27. People can create their own mental images about the past and then believe that these mental images reflect real experiences when they do not.
The way we can ‘create’ our experiences.
28. I study people who remember things that have not happened, not those who cannot remember.
Clarifying the particular case of your study.
29. Even if we educate people and warn them about memory distortion, they will still be vulnerable.
It may even be an unconscious process.
30. Fake news will help people build memories about things that never happened.
Warning about fake news that spreads on different news channels.
31. If someone says they haven’t thought about it for years and someone else reminded them from a similar experience, that’s something that can happen. But I wouldn’t call that repression.
For Elizabeth, repressed memories do not exist
32. Maybe it helps us live a happier life and feel better about ourselves.
A possible reason for those false memories.
33. Our lives are made of memories.
They are part of our identity.
34. We saw that memories could be implanted that would be traumatic if they had really happened, such as being attacked by an animal or suffering an accident.
Even such shocking things can be constructed in the mind.
35. The process of calling it into conscious awareness can change it, and now you are storing something that is different. We all do this, for example, by inadvertently adopting a story we have heard.
How information changes in our brain.
36. My job has made me tolerant of memory errors from family and friends.
It is not always done on purpose, but rather it is a spontaneous response.
37. Our malleable memory and our propensity to develop false memories has implications for our identity and how we feel about ourselves.
Some insecurities may be manufactured by our imagination.
38. You don’t have to call them lies. I think we could be generous and say that maybe it’s a false memory.
A way to give a coherent response to an information gap.
39. Giving people the wrong details can alter what they remember about past events. This phenomenon is known as the misinformation effect.
The term for this type of manipulation.
40. The problem is clear: the unreliability of eyewitness identification evidence poses one of the most serious problems in the administration of criminal justice and civil litigation.
That is why justice demands as much evidence of the fact as possible.
41. So we remember that we got better grades in school than we did, that we voted in elections we didn’t vote in, that our children walked and talked at an earlier age than they actually did.
The subtle but impactful way it affects reality.
42. False memories, like true ones, can be described in detail, expressed with confidence, reported with emotion.
They have the same ability to convince.
43. Some spontaneous memory distortions are common.
Surely it has happened to you too.
44. Without independent corroboration, it is very difficult to know for sure whether something is a genuine memory or the result of imagination, dreams, or some other experience.
It is not enough to just trust our memories there are more variables involved.
45. These naturally occurring distortions probably allow us to feel better about ourselves. They reveal that memory has a “superiority complex.”
It is perhaps a way to always find comfort.
46. If we make people believe that before the age of 16 they got sick by drinking vodka, they don’t want to drink so much vodka.
An example of the impact of conviction.
47. Would it be possible to cultivate this technology and implant false memories that help you live a happier and healthier life? The idea is scary. Someone could misuse it.
A possibility that may be present in the future.
48. We do it alone.
We don’t need to have an outside influence to change our memories.
49. External suggestion can lead to false memories of traumatic childhood events, and these can be life-changing. Many families have been destroyed by rich false memories that some people have unfortunately developed.
You have to be very careful when defining the real reasons behind traumas
50. It is inevitable to associate false memories with fake news and social networks. The information we receive is contaminated.
