This is because people, especially children, are perfectly capable of forming false memories.

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Perhaps Loftus' most powerful -- and controversial -- work came in the 1990s when she first began manufacturing false memories.

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It has been amply demonstrated that it is possible for false memories to be created, whether deliberately or otherwise, which are as reliable as any true memory.

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The false memories were about getting lost on a shopping trip and included real details, such as the name of a store where they often shopped and siblings they were likely with.

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That science blends psychiatry and neuroscience, supposing, for instance, that patients with brain injuries produce false memories because it's their bodies' involuntary, natural way of healing, and that hormones can cause memory suppression.

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They cast doubt on the reliability of her memories and suggested there was a possibility they could be false.

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