One of the nation’s premier experts on human memory, Elizabeth Loftus, will lecture at 8 p.m., on Thursday, Sept. 16, in Denison University’s Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). “Manufacturing Memories” is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Anderson Lecture Series.

Loftus’ research has focused on the ways that memory can be distorted through exposure to misinformation and how people can confidently have “rich false memories” for events that never happened. Her research has shown how the power of suggestion can create false beliefs and memories, and she has been a central figure in the controversial questioning of the validity of “recovered memories” of childhood traumatic experiences.

Loftus, the author of 22 books and more than 450 scientific articles, is a distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine. She also has appointments as professor of law and fellow of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

The late J. Reid Anderson ’38 and his widow, Polly Anderson, established the Reid and Polly Anderson Program in the Sciences in 1986. The program includes the Anderson Lecture Series, the Anderson Science Scholarships and the Anderson Research Assistantships for Science Students. The Anderson Lectures are an ongoing series of all-college presentations by distinguished expositors of the pure and applied sciences, aimed at elevating the general understanding of the natural sciences, mathematics and technologies.