You Must Remember This

New research directed by a Los Angeles-area cognitive psychologist reveals how easily the malleable, fallible human memory can be fooled, distorted, polluted and misled. Elizabeth Loftus is distinguished professor at UC Irvine. Her studies show memory surprisingly susceptible to suggestion, misinformation and error, no matter how vivid and certain the recollections. “Give me enough time and I’ll make anybody believe almost anything,” we remember Loftus saying.

Using doctored photos and phony stories, her team experimented, implying fictitious events that participants eventually “recalled.” These included childhood Disneyland encounters with cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny, even though the wascally Warner Bros. wabbit would be awwested on sight in Anaheim. Many of us hear childhood stories so often we recall living the tales.

This awareness of honestly held but fake memories might have been useful during the Salem witch trials, when people were convicted on the basis of children’s recollections. The research also holds implications for modern justice that relies on police interrogations, eyewitnesses and instant electronic transmission of details to mass audiences. Loftus cites the Washington-area snipers’ “white van.” Everybody saw white vans until two suspects were arrested in a blue Caprice.

Those of a certain age may discover occasional details like names or even a train of thought slipping from mental grasp for a moment or several. That’s part of aging, forgetting things. And misremembering others. But, um, where were we? Oh, right, memory. Lions may not reminisce around the waterhole about delicious zebras, but memories are the fabric of human life. They allow learning and reaffirm common moments.

But are there commercial and therapeutic possibilities here? Could “memory transplants” of fictitious but seemingly real events provide useful therapy to supplant bad past memories that may or may not be real? Can we replace old, possibly false, memories with definitely false but more pleasing new ones? Obvious applications here for marriage therapists, guidance counselors, even travel advisors. Do you remember that luxurious European vacation you long dreamed of affording, drifting languorously down French canals in the warm sun while friendly Frenchmen wave and maidens smile from bridges overhead? You took that trip 10 years ago, don’t you remember? Anyway, thanks to what’s-her-name in Irvine.