Elizabeth F. Loftus (born in Los Angeles, CA) is a psychologist who works on human memory and how it can be changed by facts, ideas, suggestions and other forms of post-event information. Her work is controversial, and has much direct application in law and other fields.
Dr. Loftus received her bachelor's degree in mathematics and psychology from UCLA in 1966. She went on to receive her MA ('67) and Ph.D in psychology ('70) both from Stanford University.
She is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society, and the Department of Cognitive Sciences, and a Fellow of The Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine. She is also an Affiliate Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Law at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Loftus has acted as a consultant or expert witness in hundreds of court cases on the subject of memory.
"Jane Doe" was the subject of a study published by David Corwin on issues of repressed and recovered memory. Neither the study nor later follow-up studies and articles referred to her by her real name. As a psychiatrist retained in a divorce case, Corwin had videotaped an interview with Jane Doe - then six years old - in which she claimed to have suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her biological mother. Eleven years later, Corwin showed Jane Doe with the original tape after obtaining approval from her and her guardian. Corwin then videotaped a follow-on interview in which Jane Doe appeared to recall the abuse she had suffered despite having had no memory of abuse in the years since the initial interview. Corwin published a transcript of the tape and an explanatory article. With Doe's permission, Corwin also played portions of both videotapes to numerous audiences.
Loftus and co-researcher Melvin Guyer undertook a subsequent investigation into the case and reviewed extensive background material. Based on the information obtained, Loftus and Guyer published an article entitled “Who Abused Jane Doe? The Hazards of the Single Case History” in the Skeptical Inquirer. The article was highly critical of the scientific validity of Corwin's earlier research.
On February 23, 2004, "Jane Doe", using her real name of Nicole Taus, sued Loftus, the University of Washington and others alleging invasion of privacy and other torts. Most of the counts against Loftus were dismissed by the trial court or reviewing courts. In February, 2007, the California Supreme Court found that one count, based on the allegation that Loftus misrepresented herself in interviewing Taus's foster mother, could proceed to trial.
On October 26, 2006, Dr. Loftus was called as the first defense witness in a pretrial hearing in the federal perjury case against Lewis Libby. The Washington Post alleges that under "withering" cross-examination by prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Loftus struggled to defend the scientific basis of her methodology amid apparent contradictions between her testimony and her work, and internal contradictions within her work. According to the Post, Loftus also "insisted that she had never met Fitzgerald" previously; however, Fitzgerald reminded her that he had cross-examined her before in another case in which she had been an expert defense witness. The transcript from the hearing indicates that Loftus simply said that she had no recollection of meeting him from an encounter 14 years earlier (US v. Libby, CR. NO. 05-394 [RBW]).
Loftus has also received five honorary doctorates for her research, the first in 1982 from Miami University (Ohio), the second in 1990 from Leiden University in the Netherlands, and the third in 1994 from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York - an honorary doctorate of laws. Her 4th honorary doctorate, from the University of Portsmouth in England, was awarded in l998; the 5th, from the University of Haifa is Israel, was awarded in 2005.
Perhaps one of the most unusual signs of recognition of the impact of Loftus’s research came in a study published by the Review of General Psychology. The study identified the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, and not surprisingly Freud, Skinner, and Piaget are at the top of that list. Loftus was #58, and the top ranked woman on the list.
