Smearing in the name of scholarship.

Abstract

Space constraints force us to address only the most crucial issues raised by discussion of the memories of World War II (WWII) veterans.1. Karon and Widener (1998) asserted that we and other critics of their article "suggested] that the WWII patients who suffered trauma and repression were all malingerers" (p. 482). Yet, in our article (Lilienfeld & Loftus, 1998), we stated that "It is possible [italics added], for example, that his [the patient's] symptom represented malingering" (p. 474) and discussed several other explanations for the patient's reported symptoms. Moreover, nowhere did we suggest that the symptoms of other WWII veterans represented malingering. We find it difficult to understand what would motivate Karon and Widener to mischaracterize our statements in such a wholesale manner.2. Although Karon and Widener (1998) claimed that we "talk[ed] about issues never raised in our article: hypnosis as a truth-seeking procedure" (p. 484), this denial is categorically false. In their original article, they asserted that during WWII "there were experimental uses of hypnosis and sodium penthathol interviews to undo the repression and recover the memories in brief therapy" (pp. 338-339).3. We are at a loss to respond to Karon and Widener's (1998) assertion that the Consumer Reports study (Seligman, 1995), which revealed that most individuals who receive therapy report benefits, provides evidence that the lifting of repressions is therapeutically effective. Most forms of psychotherapy do not rely on removing repressions, and Karon and Widener's contention that "any psychotherapy that permits patients to remember more of their

Keep your enemies close: Adversarial collaborations will improve behavioral science.

“…Although some adversarial collaborations proceed harmoniously (e.g., Fiske, 2017), in which case these precautions are overkill, we think it wise to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Disputes with high symbolic or policy stakes—such as the controversies over the accuracy of suppressed memories (e.g., Karon & Widener, 1998; Loftus, 2005; Pendergrast, 1999), the consequences of affirmative action (e.g., Crosby et al, 2006; Sander, 2004), the causes of gender gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; STEM (e.g., Cheryan et al, 2017; Williams & Ceci, 2015), racial disparities in police use of force (e.g., Cesario et al, 2019, Geller et al, 2020; Hollis & Jennings, 2018), or the influence of implicit bias (e.g., Jost et al, 2009a; Tetlock & Mitchell, 2009b)—can quickly become contentious.…”

“…One team in Germany has focused on studies testing theories of consciousness (Melloni et al, 2021). And for over a decade, skeptics and proponents of psychic ability worked together on a series of studies to assess whether people can psychically detect when another person is staring at them (e.g., Schlitz et al, 2006;Wiseman & Schlitz, 1997, 1999. Over the years, some studies yielded significant effects, others did not (often depending on which team collected the data), and they came to agree on the findings within individual studies but did not converge.…”

“…In this case, a thirdparty data collector might have helped. Procedural glitch aside, they did publish several joint articles and identified plausible explanations for their respective findings over the years (Schlitz et al, 2006;Wiseman & Schlitz, 1997, 1999. Cowan et al (2020) have been working on a three-way extended adversarial collaboration on theories of working memory in young adults and cognitive aging (e.g., Doherty et al, 2019).…”

Repressed memories: Just the facts.

“…We have already described several important pieces of research (Diven, 1937; Haggard, 1943; Shevrin, Bond, Brakel, Hertel, & Williams, 1996), which should be read by the interested reader, not Lilienfeld & Loftus’s (or other secondary sources’) characterizations of them. We do not address point by point the newest comments about what we did or did not say earlier (Lilienfeld & Loftus, 1999; Pendergrast, 1999). Obviously, we find the recent remarks distorting; however, we doubt that more “they said we said, but we actually said” dialogue will add much.…”

Blokkeres traumatiske minner fra bevisstheten?

“…Forskning på hukommelsen for sterkt traumatiske opplevelser i voksen alder inkluderer studier av krigsveteraner, overlevende fra konsentrasjonsleirer under annen verdenskrig (9), overlevende etter Pol Pot-regimet, vitner til terrorangrep og ofre for tortur (10,11). Forskningen viser at minner om redselsfulle opplevelser sitter godt (12). Minnene kommer tilbake gjentatte ganger, ofte ved ufrivillig oppdukkende «flashbacks», i en grad som kan interferere med daglige gjøremål.…”