Psychology › Thinking, memory & biases › Memory and how it works
False memories and the misinformation effect (Loftus)
1974–1995· Finding or experiment
Well replicatedStrong, repeated evidence.
Elizabeth Loftus showed that memories can be altered by later information, and that whole events can be implanted by suggestion.
See it on the Psychology map →What it says
In 1974 Loftus and John Palmer showed people a film of a car crash. Those asked how fast the cars were going when they 'smashed' gave higher estimates than those asked about 'hit', and a week later more falsely recalled broken glass. Misleading details received after an event, the 'misinformation effect', blend into memory. In the 1995 'lost in the mall' study, about a quarter of participants came to remember a childhood episode that never happened.
Why it matters
It changed police lineups, interview methods and courtroom practice, and showed that vivid, confident memories can still be false.
The evidence
Well replicated in lab and field studies. In US convictions later overturned by DNA evidence, mistaken eyewitness identification contributed to about 70%, according to Innocence Project records.
Open questions
How often implanted memories form outside the lab is debated; rates in 'lost in the mall'-style studies vary widely with method and with how a 'memory' is scored.
Connections (2)
▸False memories and the misinformation effect (Loftus) undermined repression claims of The unconscious mind and defense mechanismsWell replicated
The connection
Freud's tradition held that painful memories can be repressed, pushed into the unconscious, and later recovered intact. Loftus showed that suggestion can create detailed, confident memories of events that never happened, casting doubt on memories 'recovered' in therapy and on the idea that the mind stores hidden traumas perfectly.
Who showed it and when
The US and UK 'memory wars' of the 1990s, when recovered-memory therapy led to abuse accusations and lawsuits; Loftus testified in many cases.
The evidence
Lab studies implanting false memories, people who later retracted recovered memories, and court rulings such as Ramona v. Isabella (California, 1994) against therapists.
Open questions
Whether true repression exists is still disputed; most researchers say trauma is usually remembered too well, though some memories are forgotten and later recalled.
▸False memories and the misinformation effect (Loftus) show the reconstructive nature of Memory and how it worksWell replicated
The connection
If memory were a recording, a later question could not change it. Loftus showed that wording, suggestion and information received afterward do change what people recall, supporting Frederic Bartlett's 1932 view that remembering is reconstruction from fragments plus expectations.
Who showed it and when
Bartlett at Cambridge, 1932; Loftus at the University of Washington from the 1970s, later at the University of California, Irvine.
The evidence
Hundreds of misinformation experiments, plus brain imaging showing true and false memories activate overlapping regions.
Open questions
Whether misinformation overwrites the original memory or both versions survive and compete is still debated.