Elizabeth Loftus

Cognitive Science American 1944 100 quotes

A leading expert on human memory, particularly eyewitness testimony and the malleability of memory, demonstrating how false memories can be implanted.

Quotes by Elizabeth Loftus

We think our past is fixed, but it's more like wet cement—easily shaped.

Interview 2008

The lost in the mall experiment proved that even implausible events can become 'remembered'.

Journal 1995

Confidence in a memory doesn't guarantee its accuracy.

Speech 2002

Our brains are storytellers, filling in gaps with fiction when facts fail.

Book 2010

Repressed memories? More like repressed skepticism in some therapies.

Interview 1993

Memory isn't a truth serum; it's a creative reconstruction.

Book 1975

In the dance of memory, leading questions can step on truth's toes.

Article 1982

What we remember is often more about who we are now than who we were then.

Speech 2017

The fragility of memory is a reminder of our human imperfection.

Book 2000

Suggestibility isn't a flaw; it's a feature of our adaptive minds.

Interview 2011

Eyewitnesses see with their eyes, but recall with their expectations.

Journal 1978

Memories fade, but myths about them persist.

Speech 1992

In science, as in life, questioning our certainties leads to discovery.

Book 2006

The brain's filing system is more like a game of telephone than a library.

Interview 1985

False memories teach us humility about the past.

Article 2014

Post-event information can contaminate the purest recollections.

Journal 1973

Therapy should heal, not fabricate.

Speech 1996

Our memories are colored by emotion, like paint on a canvas.

Book 2009

In the courtroom of the mind, bias is the judge.

Interview 1989

Remembering is an act of imagination as much as recollection.

Speech 2019