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London conference: Loftus and Sizemore
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June 25th, 2008ConferencesThis conference offers a unique opportunity to hear two legends in psychology speak about their work and experiences.
Date Tuesday 24 March, 2009 and Wednesday 25 March, 2009 Time 11.0 am - 4.30 pm Cost £20 (inc VAT) per student plus 1 free teacher place for every 10 students
Note - there is a special rate for teachers who brought students to the Science and Pseudoscience conference in November. Tickets for both conferences cost £30.
To book places Send the following details by email or post: ♦ Date of conference ♦ Your name, school’s name and full postal address, and contact telephone number. ♦ Number of tickets required (students plus free teacher tickets) ♦ Purchase order no. for invoice (if required). I will provide an invoice to print out for payment. Email to cara.flanagan@btopenworld.com Or use the conference booking form Post to Southwest Conferences, East Gilgo, Migdale, Bonar Bridge, Sutherland IV24 3AR Note that no deposits will be taken. Payment in full required by February 1stVenue The Emmanuel Centre, 9-23 Marsham Street, London SW1P 3DW (risk assessment details can be sent to you if required)
If you have any queries please ring Cara Flanagan 01863 766242 / 07710 534418.
PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY
11.00 Introduction
11.10 Phil Banyard, Senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. former Chief examiner OCR, will talk about ‘Case studies in Psychology and what they tell us about ourselves’. 11.45 Cara Flanagan, freelance academic author, senior examiner, will talk about ‘Who made you? Was it your parents or was it you? Is it nature or nurture?’ 12.15 Chris Costner Sizemore will about her personal experience of, and thoughts about, mental disorder. She will then answer questions from students. 1.15 Lunch 2.15 Mike Cardwell, Senior lecturer at Bath Spa University, former Chief examiner AQA A, will talk about ‘Social influence research and its implications for social change’. 2.45 Professor Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor at the University of California - Irvine. New studies show the power of imagination and suggestion to make people believe that they have had experiences that they didn’t have. People have been led to remember non-existent events from the recent past as well as non-existent events from their childhood. They can be led to falsely believe that they have had familiar experiences, but also rather bizarre or implausible ones (e.g. that they witnessed demonic possession as a child). They can be led to believe that they did things that would have been impossible (e.g. that they shook hands with Bugs Bunny during a trip to Disneyland). They can also be led to falsely believe that they had experiences that would have been highly traumatic had they actually happened. False beliefs have consequences for people, affecting later thoughts and behaviours. For example, people who are led to believe that as children they got sick eating particular foods show avoidance of those foods later on. These false beliefs are important in legal cases. When witnesses testify, they are often detailed, confident and emotional. Juries are impressed with the testimony. But people can be detailed, confident and emotional, even when the memories are false. There will be a Q & A session at the end of Professor Loftus’ talk
5 Responses to “London conference: Loftus and Sizemore”
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Estelle King
I’ve just picked this up via the psychology e-mail group - as my school is in Cornwall and it is nowadays VERY difficult to take a group to London, especially as I am running the psychology dept single-handedly, is there any chance, pretty please, of providing another location? We have attended a number of conferences of yours to date, several at Torbay?????
Yours in hope,
Estelle King -
Tom
Hi,
I have just posted to express interest in the Nottingham Pseudoscience conference you are running but we would also be interested in attending this conference on either one of the dates. Am I right in saying we would receive a discount for booking the two and if so, how can I go about booking us our places?
Thanks
Tom -
Hello Tom
Yes you would receive a discount if you book both - £30 for a combined ticket. Get in touch with me directly at cara.flanagan@btopenworld.com
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Amanda Miller
Also teach in Cornwall and looking at logistics of taking group to London. Something closer though would be ideal.
Huge psychology department, so numbers wouldn,t be a problem. -
Hello Amanda
I wrote a reply directly to Estelle but should have posted it here. I do appreciate how frustrating it must be to have all these lovely conferences in London. The problem is that conferences outside London are quite difficult to run viably. I have organised something in Bristol in November and am likely to run it at a loss because of insufficient students. People say they would like local conferences but only London produces the kind of student numbers to make it viable. The revision conferences don’t cost so much when we do them in schools and I have offered various people that I would do one in Cornwall if they can provide a venue, but something like the Loftus conference has very big overheads (for each speaker you have to cover travel and accommodation plus their fee, plus the cost of a venue hire and therefore you need something like 700 students to break even). I am sorry. I suppose one possibility would be a figure like Alex Haslam who works at Exeter or Andrew Newton (hypnotist) might do it – however many speakers are reluctant to travel far from London. If you are really interested, contact me directly and we can discuss possibilities.
Cara
