False memories can be planted in people following traumatic experiences and in other situations, according to research by Elizabeth Loftus, professor of psychology and social behavior. It doesn't matter whether the person is intelligent, or has superior memory abilities, and the memories can't be detected through emotional reactions or brain imaging techniques, Loftus said during a lecture discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.
"If you ply people with misinformation about some experience that they had gone through, asking leading questions or supplying some other misinformation, you impair their memory, you can get them to believe and remember those misleading details and claim them as their own memory," Loftus said. "These individuals do not think, at all, that they are lying."