During a recent study of memory recall and the use of suggestive interviewing, UC Irvine cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus successfully planted false memories in volunteers of several study groups -- memories that included such unlikely events as kissing frogs, shaking hands with Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, and witnessing a demonic possession.

Loftus conducted her study by having volunteers conduct a set of actions that mixed the common place with the unusual and even bizarre. Later, her research team asked volunteers to imagine additional actions they performed that day, such as kissing a frog. At a future time, participants were asked to recall their actions on that specific day; 15 percent of the study's volunteers claimed they had actually performed some of the actions they had only imagined. In another study, Loftus showed how false memories can be planted with a visual. Loftus and her colleagues exposed volunteers to a fake print advertisement describing a visit to Disneyland where they would meet Bugs Bunny. Later, 33 percent of these volunteers claimed they knew or remembered the event happening to them (Bugs Bunny is a Warner Bros. character and has never appeared at Disneyland.) The false memory rate was boosted when people were given multiple exposures to the fake advertisement. In one study, 36 percent of those given three exposures said they met Bugs Bunny, compared to only 9 percent in a control condition.

These studies continue three decades of research by Loftus proving that memory is highly susceptible to distortion and contamination. >from *Kissing Frogs To Demonic Possession, People Are Led To Believe They Experienced The Improbable*, february 17, 2003

related context
> mirroring evil: nazi imagery/recent art. march 18, 2002
> eyes and ears understand differently. august 16, 2001
> a paradigm shift in neuroscience: memory loss in old age no longer linked to dying brain cells. november 25, 1998
> memory. wikipedia
> a guide through the labyrinth of memory. exhibition at the exploratorium

imago
> kiss frogs