The Fiction of Memory – by Professor Elizabeth Loftus

Elizabeth Loftus has dedicated her career to demonstrating that your memory is not like a recording device, but a Wikipedia page: you can change it, but so can other people.

To understand the causes and consequences of false memories, Professor Loftus has discovered techniques that change details of events that someone actually experienced, or create entire memories of events that never happened.

As a result, hundreds of scientific teams around the world have shown that we can come to believe we did things that are rather implausible. We can also be led to falsely believe we had experiences that would have been emotional or traumatic had they actually happened.

In several studies, Loftus discovered that once planted, false memories look very much like true memories: they have similar behavioural characteristics, emotionality, and neural signatures. More recently, Professor Loftus has turned her focus to discovering the positive side of false memories, including surprising therapeutic applications for memory modification, such as including ideas for improving our physical well-being by nudging patients to “remember" their preferences for healthy foods.

Professor Loftus has written 23 books and more than 500 scientific journal articles that have forever changed the scientific community’s understanding of memory. She has served as an expert witness in hundreds of cases and been a strong advocate of those who have been wrongfully convicted based on inaccurate memory. Her work has been instrumental in helping to change the way police interview witnesses, spurred reforms to reduce wrongful convictions, and encouraged therapists to refrain from well-intentioned but dangerous techniques.

In a recent profile in Nature, Professor Loftus is described as having "done more than any other researcher to document the unreliability of memory in experimental settings." The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes Professor Loftus's work as having "a profound impact on the field of psychology, on scholars outside the field, and on the administration of justice around the world.”

Members of the public are invited to attend this free public lecture being held at the University of Waikato on Monday 2 September, entitled 'The Fiction of Memory'.

This public lecture will be held at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, starting at 6.15pm. Complimentary drinks and nibbles served from 5.45pm. Free parking is available on campus via Gate 2B, Knighton Road, Hamilton.

Please register your attendance by visiting the website and clicking on the 'register' here link. Remember to bring your eticket with you on the night.