Geoffrey Loftus (born December 24, 1945) is a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. He specializes in

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

and

attention Attention or focus, is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either subjectively or objectively. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

, and his most recent research focuses on

face perception Facial perception is an individual's understanding and interpretation of the face. Here, perception implies the presence of consciousness and hence excludes automated facial recognition systems. Although facial recognition is found in other spe ...

and hindsight bias. Loftus received a B.A. in

experimental psychology Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...

from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1967 and a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1971, where his advisor was Richard C. Atkinson. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship under the mentorship of

George Sperling George Sperling (born 1934) is an American cognitive psychologist, researcher, and educator. Sperling documented the existence of iconic memory (one of the sensory memory subtypes). Through several experiments, he showed support for his hypoth ...

in 1972, and he joined the faculty of the

shortly thereafter, where he has remained since. He taught at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

during the 1995–1996 academic year. Geoff Loftus was married to fellow psychologist

Elizabeth Loftus Elizabeth F. Loftus (born 1944) is an American psychologist who is best known in relation to the misinformation effect, false memory and criticism of recovered memory therapies. Loftus's research includes the effects of phrasing on the percep ...

from 1968 to 1991. They are now divorced, but remain close colleagues. Geoff Loftus retired from full-time professorship in July, 2017, primarily to focus on his legal work. He still regularly testifies as an expert witness.

Legal work

Increasingly, Loftus has been applying his scientific work to issues in human cognition that have arisen in legal cases. He has participated in one way or another in approximately 1,000 such cases. He has testified as an expert witness in perception, memory, statistics, and video-game behavior in approximately 495 civil and criminal cases. He has testified in

superior court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

s in 13 U.S. states,

United States federal courts The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three branches of the federal government of the United States organized under the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution and Law of the United States, laws of the fed ...

in 11 different cities, a U.S.

Court-martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the arme ...

at the U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy, and Canadian court in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, Manitoba. His work has been cited by the Innocence project in several of their cases, most notably that of Darrell Edwards. He has written articles on information loss in the human visual system associated with a witness's seeing someone from a specific distance (most relevant to the Innocence Project work) and visual hindsight bias.Harley, E.M., Carlsen, K.A., & Loftus, G.R. (2004). The "Saw-it-all-along" effect: Demonstrations of visual hindsight bias. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 30, 960-968
Why peoples' perception of poor-visual-quality objects changes after they already know what it is.

References

External links

Geoffrey Loftus's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loftus, Geoffrey Living people 1945 births 21st-century American psychologists Memory researchers Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Society of Experimental Psychologists Stanford University alumni Brown University alumni University of Washington faculty 20th-century American psychologists