The 50 best quotes by Elizabeth Loftus

A selection of the most interesting reflections of psychologist and researcher Elizabeth Loftus.

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 that sometimes we can not fully trust our memories to be mixed with other mental processes.

In this article you will find a selection of the best quotes by Elizabeth Loftus about the human being and mental processes. about the human being and mental processes.

The most memorable quotes by Elizabeth Loftus

Being a pioneer in this field of psychology, Elizabeth Loftus's reflections are very interesting to learn more about the human mind. Let's take a look at the most remarkable ones of this author.

1. Just because someone thinks they remember something in detail, with confidence and emotion, does not mean that it actually happened.

Explaining how the mind can trick us with our memories.

2. Through the past we can condition the future.

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.

Truth is never absoluteThere is a wide scale of grays.

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 work to create a filler between memory gaps.

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 you are led to believe that as a child you got sick from drinking something, you won't want it.

The manipulative power of imposed beliefs.

9. Therapists probably can't do it ethically, and may have provisions against deception in their standards of conduct. But bad governments, bad people, have no conduct requirements.

Talk about how people take advantage of mental manipulation.

10. In real life, as well as in experiments, people can come to believe things that never happened.

It's all a matter of convincing the person of it.

11. Some errors are "small", such as misremembering words from a list that did not contain those words. Some errors are major, such as misremembering details of a past event. Some errors are even bigger, like remembering entire dramatic events that never really happened.

Everyone constructs his or her own mental errors depending on his or her experiences.

12. If I have learned anything, it is that just because someone remembers something in great detail and tells you about it with emotion does not mean that it really happened.

That's why we have to base it on facts to back it up.

13. When we recently published a study on the planting of false memories among U.S. soldiers, I was concerned 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 autobiographical memory errors, these can also occur in different ways.

This is due to the fact that mental processes in childhood 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) why sometimes I get so much resistance in the work that I do. Because you're telling people that their mind may be filled with a lot more fiction than they think. And people don't like that.

The mind works in a particular way to block out pain.

16. There are probably different processes that lead us to develop the different types of memory errors.

The perception of our life can influence it a lot.

17. We all have malleable memories that can be contaminated or supplemented in some way.

No one escapes this rule of the mind.

18. I am a psychologist. I am a cognitive psychologist and I study human memory. I have specialized in the field of false memories.

Talking about the profession you are in and the field of psychology you have focused on, cognitive psychology.

19. Memory, like freedom, is a fragile thing.

Memory is not always reliableas this researcher demonstrated with her experiments.

• You may be interested in, "What are false memories and why do we suffer from them?"

20. It is possible not to think about something for a long time, even something unpleasant that 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 the way we remember.

22. Sometimes, people are not sure what happened and simply guess, but they are wrong.

A perfect example of how we fill in the 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 memory.

People who are the exception in Elizabeth's studies.

24. I say I study memory, but then right away they want to tell me about a relative 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 on in life, you had to cover up this memory, because it would be too painful to live with it. Then, finally, he goes into therapy and goes through the barrier of repression and out comes this pristine memory. But there is really no credible scientific support for that notion.

The discordance about the process of recovering repressed memories.

26. What would you rather have: a child with obesity, Heart problems, a short life span, diabetes, or perhaps a little false memory?

An interesting approach that puts us in front of 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.

How 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 of memory distortion, they will still be vulnerable.

It may even be an unconscious process.

30. Fake news is going to contribute to people building memories about things that never happened.

Warning about fake news being spread on different news channels.

31. If someone says they hadn't thought about it for years and someone else reminded them of it 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 about those false memories.

33. Our lives are made up 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 having 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 work has made me tolerant of memory errors of family and friends.

It is not always done on purpose, but 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 fabricated 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 wrong details can alter what they remember about past events. This phenomenon is known as the disinformation 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 proof of the fact as possible.

41. Then, we remember that we got better grades in school than we did, that we voted in elections we did not vote in, that our children walked and talked at an earlier age than they actually did.

The subtle but shocking 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 convincing capacity.

43. Some spontaneous memory distortions are common.

I'm sure it has happened to you too.

44. Without independent corroboration, it is very difficult to know with certainty whether something is an authentic memory or the result of imagination, dreams, or some other experience.

It is not enough to rely on our memories aloneThere 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 of always finding comfort.

46. If we make people believe that before the age of 16 they got sick drinking vodka, they don't want to drink so much vodka.

An example of the impact of convincing.

47. Would it be possible to cultivate this technology and implant false memories that help to 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 on our own.

We do not need to have an external 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, unfortunately, some people have developed.

One must be very careful to define the real reasons behind trauma.

• Related article, "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

50. It is inevitable to relate false memories to fake news and social networks. The information we receive is contaminated.

Much current information is sensationalized.