Elizabeth Loftus

Elizabeth F. Loftus is a Distinguished Professor in Psychological Science and Criminology, Law & Society in the School of Social Ecology, as well as Professor in the School of Law, at the University of California, Irvine, positions held since 2002. She also maintains an affiliation with the Department of Cognitive Sciences and is a Fellow of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Loftus earned her B.A. with highest honors in Mathematics and Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1966, M.A. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1967, and Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1970. Prior to UCI, she advanced from Assistant Professor to Full Professor at the University of Washington from 1973 to 2002 and served as Adjunct Professor of Law there from 1984 to 2002. Earlier positions include Assistant Professor at The New School Graduate Faculty in New York from 1970 to 1973. She was Founding Director of the Center for Psychology & Law at UCI from 2005 to 2012.

Loftus is a leading expert in psychology, renowned for her research on human memory, including the misinformation effect, creation of false memories, and reliability of eyewitness testimony, with significant implications for law. Key publications include her seminal book Eyewitness Testimony (1979, multiple editions co-authored with others), The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse (1994, with Katherine Ketcham), and highly cited papers such as "Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction Between Language and Memory" (1974), "A Spreading-Activation Theory of Semantic Processing" (1975), "Planting Misinformation in the Human Mind: A 30-Year Investigation of the Malleability of Memory" (2005), and "The Formation of False Memories" (1995). Her work has earned numerous honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences (2004), American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2003), Grawemeyer Prize in Psychology (2005), American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology (2013), AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility (2010), and honorary doctorates from Leiden University (1990), University of Oslo (2008), and Australian National University (2022). Loftus has consulted or testified as an expert witness in hundreds of cases, including trials of Oliver North, Rodney King officers, and Duke Lacrosse players, profoundly influencing courtroom practices on memory evidence.

Professional Email: eloftus@uci.edu