full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elizabeth Loftus: How reliable is your memory?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I do want to add that it might seem like we are traumatizing these experimental scjubets in the name of sneccie, but our studies have gone through thorough evaluation by research ethics boards that have made the diicsoen that the temporary doicfrosmt that some of these subjects might exencperie in these siudtes is outweighed by the importance of this problem for understanding memory processes and the abuse of memory that is going on in some places in the world.

Well, to my siuprrse, when I published this work and began to speak out against this particular brand of psychotherapy, it created some pretty bad problems for me: htsliioetis, primarily from the repressed memory therapists, who felt under attack, and by the patients whom they had influenced. I had sometimes armed guards at speeches that I was invited to give, people trying to drum up letter-writing campaigns to get me fired. But probably the worst was I sseutepcd that a woman was innocent of aubse that was being claimed by her grown daughter. She aceucsd her mother of sexual abuse based on a repressed memory. And this accusing daughter had actually allowed her sorty to be filmed and presented in public pacels. I was suspicious of this story, and so I started to investigate, and eventually found information that convinced me that this mother was innocent. I phiulesbd an exposé on the case, and a little while later, the accusing daughter filed a lawsuit. Even though I'd never mtenoeind her name, she sued me for defamation and invasion of privacy. And I went through nearly five yaers of dealing with this messy, unpleasant litigation, but finally, finally, it was over and I could really get back to my work. In the process, however, I became part of a disturbing trend in America where scientists are being sued for simply speaking out on matters of gerat plbiuc controversy.

Open Cloze


I do want to add that it might seem like we are traumatizing these experimental ________ in the name of _______, but our studies have gone through thorough evaluation by research ethics boards that have made the ________ that the temporary __________ that some of these subjects might __________ in these _______ is outweighed by the importance of this problem for understanding memory processes and the abuse of memory that is going on in some places in the world.

Well, to my ________, when I published this work and began to speak out against this particular brand of psychotherapy, it created some pretty bad problems for me: ___________, primarily from the repressed memory therapists, who felt under attack, and by the patients whom they had influenced. I had sometimes armed guards at speeches that I was invited to give, people trying to drum up letter-writing campaigns to get me fired. But probably the worst was I _________ that a woman was innocent of _____ that was being claimed by her grown daughter. She _______ her mother of sexual abuse based on a repressed memory. And this accusing daughter had actually allowed her _____ to be filmed and presented in public ______. I was suspicious of this story, and so I started to investigate, and eventually found information that convinced me that this mother was innocent. I _________ an exposé on the case, and a little while later, the accusing daughter filed a lawsuit. Even though I'd never _________ her name, she sued me for defamation and invasion of privacy. And I went through nearly five _____ of dealing with this messy, unpleasant litigation, but finally, finally, it was over and I could really get back to my work. In the process, however, I became part of a disturbing trend in America where scientists are being sued for simply speaking out on matters of _____ ______ controversy.

Solution


  1. published
  2. mentioned
  3. science
  4. discomfort
  5. places
  6. years
  7. abuse
  8. decision
  9. story
  10. public
  11. accused
  12. subjects
  13. suspected
  14. surprise
  15. experience
  16. hostilities
  17. great
  18. studies

Original Text


I do want to add that it might seem like we are traumatizing these experimental subjects in the name of science, but our studies have gone through thorough evaluation by research ethics boards that have made the decision that the temporary discomfort that some of these subjects might experience in these studies is outweighed by the importance of this problem for understanding memory processes and the abuse of memory that is going on in some places in the world.

Well, to my surprise, when I published this work and began to speak out against this particular brand of psychotherapy, it created some pretty bad problems for me: hostilities, primarily from the repressed memory therapists, who felt under attack, and by the patients whom they had influenced. I had sometimes armed guards at speeches that I was invited to give, people trying to drum up letter-writing campaigns to get me fired. But probably the worst was I suspected that a woman was innocent of abuse that was being claimed by her grown daughter. She accused her mother of sexual abuse based on a repressed memory. And this accusing daughter had actually allowed her story to be filmed and presented in public places. I was suspicious of this story, and so I started to investigate, and eventually found information that convinced me that this mother was innocent. I published an exposé on the case, and a little while later, the accusing daughter filed a lawsuit. Even though I'd never mentioned her name, she sued me for defamation and invasion of privacy. And I went through nearly five years of dealing with this messy, unpleasant litigation, but finally, finally, it was over and I could really get back to my work. In the process, however, I became part of a disturbing trend in America where scientists are being sued for simply speaking out on matters of great public controversy.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
false memories 7
false memory 7
steve titus 3
researchers planted 3
absolutely positive 2
memory works 2
simulated accident 2
witnesses told 2
broken glass 2
rich false 2
repressed memory 2
accusing daughter 2
plant false 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
rich false memories 2
plant false memories 2

Important Words


  1. abuse
  2. accused
  3. accusing
  4. add
  5. allowed
  6. america
  7. armed
  8. attack
  9. bad
  10. based
  11. began
  12. boards
  13. brand
  14. campaigns
  15. case
  16. claimed
  17. controversy
  18. convinced
  19. created
  20. daughter
  21. dealing
  22. decision
  23. defamation
  24. discomfort
  25. disturbing
  26. drum
  27. ethics
  28. evaluation
  29. eventually
  30. experience
  31. experimental
  32. exposé
  33. felt
  34. filed
  35. filmed
  36. finally
  37. fired
  38. give
  39. great
  40. grown
  41. guards
  42. hostilities
  43. importance
  44. influenced
  45. information
  46. innocent
  47. invasion
  48. investigate
  49. invited
  50. lawsuit
  51. litigation
  52. matters
  53. memory
  54. mentioned
  55. messy
  56. mother
  57. outweighed
  58. part
  59. patients
  60. people
  61. places
  62. presented
  63. pretty
  64. primarily
  65. privacy
  66. problem
  67. problems
  68. process
  69. processes
  70. psychotherapy
  71. public
  72. published
  73. repressed
  74. research
  75. science
  76. scientists
  77. sexual
  78. simply
  79. speak
  80. speaking
  81. speeches
  82. started
  83. story
  84. studies
  85. subjects
  86. sued
  87. surprise
  88. suspected
  89. suspicious
  90. temporary
  91. therapists
  92. traumatizing
  93. trend
  94. understanding
  95. unpleasant
  96. woman
  97. work
  98. world
  99. worst
  100. years