Lost In the Mall by Elizabeth Loftus

1
Lost In the Mall by Elizabeth Loftus

• Tucker Bryant Ellis Schirmer

2
Theory Hypothesis

• The act of imagining false events led to the
  creation of false memories.
• Confabulations can be created through
  suggestions.

3
Research design procedure

• Asked 24 individuals, ranging from 18 to 53, to
  try to remember childhood events that had been
  recounted by a relative.
• Prepared a booklet for each participant
  containing one-paragraph stories about three
  events that had actually happened to them, and
  one that had not.
• Reconstructed the false event using information
  about a shopping trip provided by relatives, who
  verified that participant had in fact been lost
  at about the age of five.
• The lost-in-mall scenario included lost for a
  time period, crying, aid and comfort by an
  elderly woman, and reunion with family.

4
The results

• 25 of the participants remembered the fictious
  event. ( 6 out of 24)
• The study provides evidence that people can be
  led to remember their past in different ways, and
  they can even be coaxed into remembering entire
  events that never happened.

5
Ethical issues

• Participant manipulation
• Potential for clinical misuse
• Nadean Cool Had memories planted by psychiatrist
• Undisclosed aim

6
Ecological Validity

• Lab experiment slightly impaired
• No risk of demand characteristics
• Focus on cognition leaves little room for
  ecological application

7
Evaluation

• PRO
• Well-controlled
• Replicable
• Demonstrates cause effect relationship
• Supports hypothesis
• Serves as evidence to further conclusions
• Permits objectivity and unbiased observations
• Uses a wide sample of ages
• Good use of operationalization prevents observer
  bias

• CON
• Social facilitation
• Extraneous variables personality
• Ethical issues with potential application
• Has been used to draw certain wild conclusions
• May be situation-specific
• Survey may be biased by the way questions are
  asked
• Possible sampling bias

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Could this study be done today?

• Replication of exact study is feasible
• Many replications and variations performed to
  date
• Most studies demonstrate similar
  conclusions/evidence
• Certain variations pose potential ethical
  breaches
• Experiment is fairly recent 1991

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What makes this a classic study?

• Verifies inference most people tend to make or
  refute
• Demonstrates awesome power of subconscious
• Uses power of suggestion
• Proves the human tendency to confabulate