The 50 best phrases of Elizabeth Loftus

Elizabeth Loftus is known to be a prolific scientific figure, whose work on human memory has been greatly appreciated, as she shows us how the mind works by automatically modifying memories, so sometimes we cannot fully trust our memories as they are mixed with other processes mental.

In this article you will find a selection of the best phrases of Elizabeth Loftus about the human being and mental processes.

• Related article: "Elizabeth Loftus: Biography of this American Psychologist"

The most memorable phrases of Elizabeth Loftus

Being a pioneer in this field of psychology, Elizabeth Loftus's reflections are very interesting to better understand the human mind. Let's see the most notable of this author.

1. Just because someone thinks they remember something in detail, with confidence and with emotion, does not mean that it really happened.

Explaining how the mind can fool us with our memories.

2. Through the past, the future can be conditioned.

The past has the ability to influence the future.

3. False memories also have these characteristics.

False memories can feel very real.

4. To be cautious, one should not have great confidence as an absolute guarantee of anything.

The truth is never absolute, there is a wide gray scale.

5. The memory works like a Wikipedia page: you can go there and change it, but other people can too.

An interesting way to explain how memory works.

6. "False memory" is a phrase that refers to a variety of memory errors.

They work to create a fill between the gaps of memory.

7. When we remember something, we take fragments of experience, sometimes from different times and places, and we put them together to build what might seem like a memory, but is actually a construction.

It all depends on our experiences.

8. If they make you believe that as a child you got sick taking something, you will not want it.

The manipulative power of imposed beliefs.

9. Therapists probably cannot do it ethically, and they may have provisions against cheating in their standards of conduct. But bad governments, bad people, have no conduct requirements.

Talking about how people take advantage of mental manipulation.

10. In real life, as well as in experiments, people can come to believe things that never happened.

Everything is a matter of convincing the person of it.

• Related article: "The 10 types of beliefs, and how they talk about who we are"

11. Some mistakes are "small", such as misremembering the words in a list that did not contain those words. Some mistakes are major, like misremembering the details of a past event. Some mistakes are even bigger, like remembering entire dramatic events that never really happened.

Each one builds their own mental errors depending on her experiences.

12. If I have learned something, it is that just because someone remembers something in great detail and tells you about it with emotion does not mean that it really happened.

Therefore, we must base ourselves on facts that support them.

13. When we recently published a study on the seeding of false memories among US soldiers. USA I was worried that we were presenting a recipe for how you can do horrible things to someone and then erase the memory of it.

A truth that can be used in a negative way.

14. If we stick to the errors of autobiographical memory, these can also occur in different ways.

This is because in childhood the mental processes are connected to the imagination.

15. Even if it's going to be a hurtful memory, they don't want to let it go. (This is) the reason why I sometimes get so much stamina in the work I do. Because you are telling people that their minds may be filled with a lot more fiction than they think. And people don't like that.

The mind works in a particular way to block pain.

16. There are probably different processes that lead us to develop different types of memory errors.

The perception of our life can greatly influence it.

17. We all have malleable memories that can be contaminated or complemented in some way.

No one escapes this rule of the mind.

18. I am a psychologist. I am a cognitive psychologist and I study human memory. I have specialized in the field of false memories.

Speaking about the profession in which she is dedicated and the field of psychology in which she has focused, the cogitive psychology.

19. Memory, like freedom, is something fragile.

Memory is not always reliable, as this researcher demonstrated with her experiments.

• You may be interested in: "What are false memories and why do we suffer from them?"

20. It is possible not to think about something for a long time, even something unpleasant that has happened to you. But what has been asserted in these cases of repressed memory is something, by definition, that is too extreme to be explained by ordinary forgetting and remembering.

A traumatic event can be locked in so you never experience the same pain again.

21. The results were clear: the new environment inhibited recognition.

The environment in which we live also contributes to our way of remembering.

22. Sometimes people are not sure what happened and they just guess, but they are wrong.

A perfect example of how we fill in the information gaps.

23. There are individuals with an extraordinary memory of almost everything that has happened to them during their adult life. My colleagues who study them call them people with highly superior autobiographical memory.

People who are the exception in Elizabeth's studies.

24. I say that I study memory, but then they immediately want to tell me about a relative who has had Alzheimer's, and I explain to them that no, that is not that.

Something that happens a lot when strangers know about your work.

25. They say that to move on in life, you had to cover up this memory, because it would be too painful to live with. Then finally you go into therapy and break through the barrier of repression and this pristine memory comes out. But there really is no credible scientific backing for that notion.

Disagreement about the process of recovering repressed memories.

26. What would you rather have? A child with obesity, heart problems, a short life, diabetes, or maybe a little false memory?

An interesting approach that puts us before a decision about life.

27. People can create their own mental images about the past and then believe that these mental images reflect real experiences when they do not.

The way we can 'create' our experiences.

28. I study people who remember things that have not happened, not those who cannot remember.

Clarifying the particular case of your study.

29. Even if we educate people and warn them of memory distortion, they will still be vulnerable.

It may even be an unconscious process.

30. Fake news will help people build memories of things that never happened.

Warning about the false news that is spread in different informative channels.

31. If someone says they hadn't thought about it for years and someone else reminded them from a similar experience, it can happen. But I wouldn't call that repression.

For Elizabeth, repressed memories don't exist.

32. Maybe it helps us live a happier life and feel better about ourselves.

One possible reason for those false memories.

33. Our lives are made of memories.

They are part of our identity.

34. We saw that memories could be implanted that would be traumatic if they had actually happened, such as being attacked by an animal or being in an accident.

Even such shocking things can be constructed in the mind.

35. The process of calling it into conscious awareness can change it, and now you are storing something that is different. We all do this, for example, inadvertently adopting a story we have heard.

How information changes in our brain.

36. My work has made me tolerant of memory errors from family and friends.

It is not always done on purpose, but is a spontaneous response.

37. Our malleable memory and our propensity to develop false memories has implications for our identity and how we feel about ourselves.

Some insecurities may be manufactured by our imagination.

38. You don't have to call them lies. I think we could be generous and say that maybe it's a false memory.

A way of giving a coherent response to an information gap.

39. Giving people the wrong details can alter what you remember of past events. This phenomenon is known as the disinformation effect.

The term for this type of manipulation.

40. The problem is clear: the unreliability of eyewitness identification evidence poses one of the most serious problems in the administration of criminal justice and civil litigation.

That is why justice requires as much evidence of the fact as possible.

41. So, we remember that we got better grades in school than we got, that we voted in elections in which we did not vote, that our children walked and spoke at an earlier age than they really they did it.

The subtle but shocking way in how it affects reality.

42. False memories, like real ones, can be described in detail, expressed with confidence, informed with emotion.

They have the same capacity for persuasion.

• You may be interested in: "Persuasion: definition and elements of the art of convincing"

43. Some spontaneous memory distortions are common.

It sure has happened to you too.

44. Without independent corroboration, it is very difficult to know for sure whether something is an authentic memory or the result of imagination, dreams, or some other experience.

It is not enough just to trust our memories, there are more variables involved.

45. These naturally occurring distortions probably allow us to feel better about ourselves. They reveal that memory has a "superiority complex."

It is perhaps a way of always finding comfort.

46. If we make people believe that before the age of 16 they got sick from drinking vodka, they don't want to drink so much vodka.

An example of the impact of conviction.

47. Would it be possible to cultivate this technology and implant false memories that help to live a happier and healthier life? The idea is scary. Someone could misuse it.

A possibility that may be present in the future.

48. We do it alone.

We don't need to have an outside influence to change our memories.

49. External suggestion can lead to false memories of traumatic childhood events, and these can be life changing. Many families have been destroyed by rich false memories that, sadly, some people have developed.

You have to be very careful when defining the real reasons behind the trauma.

• Related article: "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

50. It is inevitable to link false memories with fake news and social media. The information we receive is tainted.

Much current information is sensational.