Elizabeth Loftus Sensory Memory Summary

The value of sensory memory is challenged by Elizabeth Loftus, an American psychologist. In her research article, she states that imagining oneself in a position of child sexual abuse can lead their brain into misinterpreting their intentions making them believe they went through the abuse themselves. Confabulation of memories is from when a false event is repeated over and over again in one’s mind. Loftus claims that when a person that thinks they went through the abuse listens to victims talk about their experiences, it can unconsciously trigger one to believe they went through it themselves because of the vivid description used by the victims.
Loftus disagrees with Bass and Davis on fully trusting a therapist or psychiatrist because the techniques they use to help patients regain their memories like hypnosis or suggestion can also lead a person to creating false memories. In the article, Loftus had a victim’s story where a therapist has mistakenly planted a memory into their patient. Loftus wrote, “Cool became convinced that she had repressed memories of being in a satanic cult, of eating babies, of being raped, o having sex with an animal, and being forced to
Therapists and patients should be mindful of the process of regaining past memories. A therapist's job prescription is to not deject any of their patients ideas, but they should not also reinforce ideas that might lead to the patient creating a false memory of them going through child sexual abuse. That can not only put innocent people in jail, it can also damage the patient's relationship, or the patient’s ability to make new relationships, but it can also put the patient through a pillar of stress that should not even be there in the first place; therefore, the research presented by Loftus contradicts and weakens the assumption of Bass and