We have full-text access to New Scientist, and the complete quote reads:
[begin quote] Interviewer: Do you have a passion for innocence?
Loftus: Yes. I don't know the source, but I've had it a long time. I was on the disciplinary committee at University of California at Los Angeles when I was a student, and I was known as "second-chance Fishman", which was my unmarried name. I just can't stand the idea of someone who's innocent being railroaded, let alone locked up. There are all those people who, when somebody cries abuse, want to embrace it, and my first thought is to wonder if this is a false accusation.
[end quote]
{on the off chance this is more than 10% of the article, my defense is fair dealings for the purpose of research and commentary.}
I think the context makes the quote clearer.
And here's another quote:
[begin quote] Interviewer: Some researchers argue that you can't compare such experiments to cases of repressed memories of child sexual abuse ...
Loftus: It challenges their cherished beliefs to say that some of these accusations might be false, so they find whatever ways they can to discredit the work. They say: "They're just college students", "They're just lost in a mall, not being sexually abused", or "It got implanted through imagination and not through psychotherapy". But when thousands of psychologists study the human mind, we don't think we're only studying college students sitting in a lab. We think we are studying principles that apply to a variety of human beings in a variety of settings. It's as if somebody said: "You've shown that if you shoot somebody in the head with a pistol they die, but you haven't shown that if you shoot them in the head with a pistol and in a bowling alley, they die." [end quote]
I also agree with that.
From a researcher's perspective, it's damn hard to get ethical approval to give people false memories. To give them false memories of sexual abuse would be even more difficult.
I will post some more when I am home, and rested... I am really tired now, but wanted to get those quotes posted while I was at work, and had access to the databases.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 07:26 am (UTC)[begin quote]
Interviewer: Do you have a passion for innocence?
Loftus: Yes. I don't know the source, but I've had it a long time. I was on the disciplinary committee at University of California at Los Angeles when I was a student, and I was known as "second-chance Fishman", which was my unmarried name. I just can't stand the idea of someone who's innocent being railroaded, let alone locked up. There are all those people who, when somebody cries abuse, want to embrace it, and my first thought is to wonder if this is a false accusation.
[end quote]
{on the off chance this is more than 10% of the article, my defense is fair dealings for the purpose of research and commentary.}
I think the context makes the quote clearer.
And here's another quote:
[begin quote]
Interviewer: Some researchers argue that you can't compare such experiments to cases of repressed memories of child sexual abuse ...
Loftus: It challenges their cherished beliefs to say that some of these accusations might be false, so they find whatever ways they can to discredit the work. They say: "They're just college students", "They're just lost in a mall, not being sexually abused", or "It got implanted through imagination and not through psychotherapy". But when thousands of psychologists study the human mind, we don't think we're only studying college students sitting in a lab. We think we are studying principles that apply to a variety of human beings in a variety of settings. It's as if somebody said: "You've shown that if you shoot somebody in the head with a pistol they die, but you haven't shown that if you shoot them in the head with a pistol and in a bowling alley, they die."
[end quote]
I also agree with that.
From a researcher's perspective, it's damn hard to get ethical approval to give people false memories. To give them false memories of sexual abuse would be even more difficult.
I will post some more when I am home, and rested... I am really tired now, but wanted to get those quotes posted while I was at work, and had access to the databases.