This book is based on an in-depth conversation between Howard Burton and Elizabeth Loftus, a world-renowned expert on human memory and Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science; Criminology, Law, and Society; Cognitive Science and Law at UC Irvine. This extensive conversation covers her ground-breaking work on the misinformation effect, false memories and her battles with "repressed memory" advocates, how getting expert memory testimony introduced in legal proceedings and the effect of DNA evidence on convincing judges of the problematic nature of eyewitness testimony.
This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, The Benefit of the Doubt, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:
Memory, Eventually - From mathematics to yellow birds
Legal Attraction - A critical lunch leads to the misinformation effect
Inside the Courtroom - Real witnesses, real cases, real effects
The Landscape Shifts - DNA evidence and the winds of change
Inception - Implanting childhood mall trauma
Confirmation - Extensive reproducibility
The Temperature Mounts - Jane Doe and the podium defense
Sociological Speculations - How did we get there?
Science and Pseudoscience - In search of hard evidence
Structural Reform - Learning from New Jersey
Scanning Memories - Lies, deliberate lies, and statistics
Increasing Awareness - From Sesame Street to Sweden
About Ideas Roadshow Conversations Series (100 books):
Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research featuring world-leading researchers, including 3 Nobel Laureates, but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research. Howard Burton holds a PhD in physics and an MA in philosophy, and was the Founding Director of Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.