In this episode of Research as it Happens, Rolf Zwaan talks with Elizabeth Loftus (University of California, Irvine) about one of the most influential experiments in cognitive psychology: the 1974 Loftus & Palmer study on memory and misinformation.
Loftus reflects on how the original study emerged partly by chance—from a lunch conversation with her lawyer cousin and a growing desire to work on questions with clearer real-world relevance. What followed became a landmark demonstration that the wording of a question can influence what people later report remembering.
In the conversation, we explore:
We also discuss the current large-scale replication project inspired by the original studies. What aspects of the classic experiment should remain unchanged? Which elements can be modernized? Does it matter if participants watch digital videos on computers rather than projected film clips? Could culturally different vehicles—such as scooters instead of cars—produce similar effects?
The episode also touches on a broader issue in replication research: how revisiting classic findings can become more than an attempt to reproduce an effect. Large collaborative projects may also provide opportunities to test alternative explanations and extend the original work in new directions.
More than fifty years after the original experiment, the central question remains remarkably current:
How much of what we remember is shaped by what happened afterward?
Music written and played by Rolf Zwaan
Further reading:
Website Elizabeth Loftus: https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/loftus/
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