Elizabeth Loftus

Elizabeth Loftus is an American cognitive psychologist whose experiments showed how suggestion and later information can alter recollection, especially eyewitness testimony.

Misinformation effect: A memory distortion in which misleading information encountered after an event changes how that event is later recalled. Loftus’s experiments established that post-event suggestions can alter eyewitness reports.
Car crash experiment: An experiment showing that the verb used to ask about a car collision influenced participants’ speed estimates. Loftus and John Palmer used it to demonstrate that question wording affects eyewitness reports.
Eyewitness testimony: Evidence given in court by a person who reports having witnessed an event. Loftus’s work explains why confidence and detail in testimony do not guarantee accuracy.
John C. Palmer: An American psychologist who collaborated with Elizabeth Loftus on experiments about language and memory for car accidents. Their car-crash study became a foundational demonstration of the misinformation effect.
Wrongful conviction: A criminal conviction of a person who did not commit the offense. Research on unreliable eyewitness evidence helps explain one pathway to wrongful convictions.
Leading question: A question phrased to suggest or imply a particular answer. Her wording experiments showed that a question can change estimates of an event and later recollection.
Lost in the mall technique: A procedure that tests whether a person can be led to remember a childhood event that never happened. Loftus and Jacqueline Pickrell used it to study the implantation of autobiographical memories.
Cognitive interview: A structured investigative interview method designed to improve recall without introducing misleading details. It offers an interviewing approach intended to retrieve memory while reducing suggestive questioning.
Jacqueline Pickrell: A researcher who collaborated with Elizabeth Loftus on a study of suggested childhood memories. She coauthored the lost-in-the-mall study that tested whether false autobiographical memories could be induced.
National Registry of Exonerations: A database documenting known exonerations in the United States and the factors associated with them. Its records provide a wider evidentiary context for concerns about mistaken eyewitness accounts.

Linked from 3 pages

Ulric NeisserRelated: Loftus’s work on memory connects to Neisser’s research on eyewitness testimony.