Elizabeth Loftus VICTORIA ARMIJO Early life Born on

Elizabeth Loftus VICTORIA 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 Ph. D Mathematical Psychology Stanford MA in 1967 and Ph. D 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. Ph. D 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 (PFruit) 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 factorsmisleading information influenced answer given 2. The memory representation is alteredverb 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 placealso known as repressed memories Video- https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=PB 2 Oeg. I 6 wv. I 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. Videohttps: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=PQr_IJv. Yzb. A

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 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 casedefendant 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 is arrested on outstanding warrant

Tyrone Briggs Victim’s description Tyrone Briggs Afro Jeri curls 25 -30 years old 19 years old Never said anything about a mole Mole Really bad stutter White-straight teeth Large nose Never said anything about a stutter Yellow-crooked teeth Ski jump 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 1 st trial- 11 to 1 on one point and 10 to 2 for acquittal = mistrial 2 nd trial- guilty New information of new attacker based on sketch and bloody shoe print from the vacant apartment 3 rd 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?