The Malleability of Memory

This book is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Elizabeth Loftus, a world-renowned expert on human memory and Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science; Criminology, Law, and Society; Cognitive Science and Law at UC Irvine. This extensive conversation covers her ground-breaking work on the misinformation effect, false memories and her battles with "repressed memory" advocates, how getting expert memory testimony introduced in legal proceedings and the effect of DNA evidence on convincing judges of the problematic nature of eyewitness testimony. 

This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, The Benefit of the Doubt, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

I. Memory, Eventually - From mathematics to yellow birds

II. Legal Attraction - A critical lunch leads to the misinformation effect

III. Inside the Courtroom - Real witnesses, real cases, real effects

IV. The Landscape Shifts - DNA evidence and the winds of change

V. Inception - Implanting childhood mall trauma

VI. Confirmation - Extensive reproducibility

VII. The Temperature Mounts - Jane Doe and the podium defense

VIII. Sociological Speculations - How did we get there?

IX. Science and Pseudoscience - In search of hard evidence

X. Structural Reform - Learning from New Jersey

XI. Scanning Memories - Lies, deliberate lies, and statistics

XII. Increasing Awareness - From Sesame Street to Sweden

About Ideas Roadshow Conversations: Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research.