Elizabeth Loftus questions the accuracy of recovered repressed memories, such as those involving childhood sexual abuse. She is skeptical of the therapeutic questioning process used to access these memories, arguing that even minor suggestions from a therapist can lead to misinformation effects that alter the patient's recall.

Loftus's Critique of Repressed Memories

In a study demonstrating memory suggestibility, researchers Stephen Ceci and Maggie Brucks asked three-year-old children to indicate on an anatomically correct doll where a pediatrician had touched them. Despite not receiving any genital exam, 55 percent of the children pointed to the genital or anal area, illustrating how suggestive questioning can result in misinformation effects.

Suggestibility in Anatomical Doll Experiment

The process of questioning an individual about past events can inadvertently alter their recall. Because memory is highly susceptible to even the slightest suggestions, therapeutic or investigative questioning can lead to misinformation effects, raising doubts about the accuracy of the accessed memories.

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Information and knowledge encoded into the brain to be retrieved 

Memory

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

- Memory models
- Forgetting
- The stages of memory
- Levels of analysis
- Levels of Processing 
- Interference
- Chunking
- Recall
- Constructive nature of memory
- Primary vs. Secondary memories
- Types of information supporting memory
- Memory errors and impairment
- Source monitoring
- Eyewitness testimony
- Experience-dependent plasticity
- Desirable difficulties
- Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory

Focuses of Research on Memory

Ranganath, Libby, and Wong (2012) explain that memory research perhaps began with Hermann Ebbinghaus’ research in the late 1800s, into his ability to memorize random syllables. His most important contributions were in the realm of methodology for experimental study of memory. Frederick Bartlett’s work in the 1930s surrounding memory of meaningful material like literary quotes demonstrated that recall of information does not happen verbatim, but rather as an “imaginative construction” comprised of pieces recalled reconstructed with inferences which fill in blanks in the memory.  Brenda Milner’s later work with people suffering from amnesia provided evidence that brain damage in certain areas could make formation of new memories difficult while not harming the development of new skills in other areas. The approaches taken by these researchers set the foundation for subsequent neuroscience studies into the purposes of different areas of the brain in memory.

Initiation of Memory Research

• Prospective Memory (PM)
• Retrospective Memory (RM)

Types of Memory

A student studies for an exam by passively re-reading their notes for several hours. The next day, they recognize the questions on the exam but cannot recall the specific answers. Based on the fundamental processes of memory, which stage was most likely the weakest, leading to this failure?

Based on the fundamental process of how information is encoded, stored, and later retrieved, analyze the student's situation. What are the potential breakdowns in the memory process that could explain why the student was unable to recall the specific details during the exam, despite their effort?

Analyzing a Memory Failure

Which of the following best defines the concept of memory in psychology?

Individuals are vulnerable to the power of suggestion, which can influence them simply based on something they see on the news or a suggestion someone else has made.

Power of Suggestion

Unintended cues and suggestions provided by police officers during investigations can significantly influence a witness's recollection and confidence. For instance, if an officer reinforces a witness's uncertain choice during a photo selection or lineup, it can inadvertently lead the witness to identify the wrong suspect.

Unintended Police Cues and Eyewitness Misidentification

Investigators must proceed with caution when interviewing eyewitnesses to a crime, as law enforcement procedures can inadvertently implant false memories or mislead the witness. Practices such as showing police line-ups or pushing a witness to create a composite sketch can corrupt an eyewitness's memory, which may hinder the investigation and prevent cases from being resolved.

Eyewitness Memory Corruption

The specific wording used in leading questions can alter a person's memory of an event. Loftus and Palmer demonstrated this by showing that participants who heard cars 'smashed' estimated higher speeds than those who heard 'contacted.' Furthermore, the 'smashed' group was more likely to falsely remember seeing broken glass a week later, indicating that implied information can encourage false memories.

Effect of Leading Questions on Memory

Individuals can falsely recall complete events, rather than just isolated words or details, even when those events never actually occurred.

False Recall of Events

The concept that memories of traumatic events can be repressed is a significant theme in psychology that originated with Sigmund Freud.

Repression of Traumatic Memories

Elizabeth Loftus has challenged the idea that individuals can repress memories of traumatic events from childhood, including sexual abuse, and then recover those memories years later through therapeutic techniques such as hypnosis, guided visualization, and age regression.

Loftus's Challenge to Repressed Memories

Misinformation Effects in Questioning

Effortful encoding is the process of intentionally paying attention to details and actively working to process information so that it can be stored in memory and remembered later.

Effortful Encoding

A well-known memory researcher and psychologist who proposed the seven sins of memory, which categorizes the ways our memories fail us into forgetting, distortion, and intrusion.

Daniel Schacter

A line graph representing the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows the relationship between elapsed time since learning and memory retention percentages. The data demonstrates a rapid initial decline in retention that eventually levels off. The approximate data points are: 100% retention at 0 minutes, 55% at 20 minutes, 40% at 60 minutes, 37% at 9 hours, 30% at 24 hours, 25% at 48 hours, 20% at 6 days, and 10% at 31 days.

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