Personal profile
Summary
Dr Lawrence Patihis, PhD is a psychological scientist who specializes in memory reliability, often in legal contexts. His doctoral advisor was Elizabeth Loftus, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the highly ranked psychology department at the University of California, Irvine, USA. He has published research in prestigious journals such as PNAS, Psychological Science, and Clinical Psychological Science.
His research on memory and beliefs about memory has been cited thousands of times. This research has made a few discoveries about how memory works: including how memory reconstruction works in Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory individuals, how appraisals seem to distort memory of emotions, and how false memories are formed. His other branch of research has helped reveal the extent of beliefs about repressed memories in practioners, scientists, and the public, as well as the prevalence of repressed memory recovery in psychotherapy. He has also published on dissociative amnesia and evolution.
He teaches a module called Trauma, Memory, and Law, that discusses false memories, some legal case studies, memory reliability, and to what degree repressed memories should be admissible in legal cases. This is an option that forensic psychology students can choose in their final year. He has published a book of the same name. With students in mind, he has also created a critical thinking tools podcast, which discusses how to distinguish science from pseudoscience, and testable theory from ideology.
Dr Patihis in available as an expert witness on legal cases on the topic of memory reliability, and is the director of the Memory in Life, Practice, and Law (MLPL) laboratory.
Dr Patihis is also an advisory board member of Academics for Academic Freedom, and the cofounder of Portsmouth Academics for Academic Freedom.
Education/Academic qualification
Ph.D., University of California at Irvine
Award Date: 1 Jun 2015
Keywords
- BF Psychology
- memory
- false memory
- memory of emotion
- repressed memories
- memory reliability
- memory and law
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 4 Quality Education
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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In a UK sample, EMDR and other trauma therapists indicate beliefs in unconscious repression and dissociative amnesia
Radcliffe, P. J. & Patihis, L., 11 May 2025, (Early online) In: Memory.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile129 Downloads (Pure) -
Interpreting fMRI studies in populations with cerebrovascular risk: the use of a subject-specific hemodynamic response function
McDonough, I. M., Bender, A. R., Patihis, L., Stinson, E. A., Letang, S. K. & Miller, W. S., 1 Nov 2025, In: Behavioral Sciences. 15, 11, 26 p., 1457.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Downloads (Pure) -
Same concept, different label: the effect of repressed memory and dissociative amnesia terminology on beliefs and recovered memory admissibility in court
Salkeld, A. & Patihis, L., 1 Mar 2025, In: Memory. 33, 3, p. 1-18 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile140 Downloads (Pure) -
Alleged false accusations of abuse: characteristics, consequences, and coping
Houben, S. T. L., Raymaekers, L., Loop, L., Vandervelt, D., Patihis, L. & Sauerland, M., 2 Jan 2024, In: Memory. 32, 1, p. 90-99Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile335 Downloads (Pure) -
Judges and lawyers’ beliefs in repression and dissociative amnesia may imperil justice: further guidance required
Radcliffe, P. J. & Patihis, L., 13 Sept 2024, In: Memory. 32, 8, p. 1083-1099Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile237 Downloads (Pure)
Thesis
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Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM): memory distortion paradigms and individual differences
Patihis, L. (Author), 2015Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis
File
Datasets
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Alleged False Accusations of Abuse: Characteristics, Consequences, and Coping.
Houben, S. T. L. (Creator), Raymaekers, L. (Creator), Loop, L. (Creator), Vandervelt, D. (Creator), Patihis, L. (Creator), Sauerland, M. (Creator) & Houben, S. (Contributor), DataverseNL, 29 Nov 2023
DOI: 10.34894/e52ynr, https://dataverse.nl/citation?persistentId=doi:10.34894/E52YNR
Dataset
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Dataset for 'Recovered memories of child abuse outside of therapy'.
Dodier, O. (Creator) & Patihis, L. (Creator), Open Science Framework, 8 Feb 2021
Dataset
Activities
- 1 Editorial activity
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Memory (Journal)
Blank, H. (Guest editor), Nash, R. A. (Guest editor), Otgaar, H. (Guest editor), Patihis, L. (Guest editor) & Rubínová, E. (Guest editor)
2019 → 2022Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity