CORRECTION: SEE CORRECTION APPENDED; Researcher accused of lying: A story in Wednesday's California section about a state Supreme Court hearing misreported an exchange between the lawyer for a repressed memory researcher and one of the justices. UC Irvine professor Elizabeth Loftus is accused of lying to get information. Her attorney, [Thomas R. Burke], was asked how he would characterize the allegation against his client. The story reported that Burke responded, "I would call it a misrepresentation." Burke actually said, "I would call it a miscommunication."

Loftus has denied misrepresenting herself. A UC Irvine professor, Loftus is a major critic of the psychological theory of repressed memory, which posits that the mind avoids intense pain by sealing off recollection of traumatic events. Under the theory, the victim may recover the memory accurately years later, usually in therapy.

During Tuesday's hearing, the court seemed mainly interested in [Nicole Taus]' allegation that Loftus had misrepresented herself to obtain an interview with Taus' former foster mother. The foster mother claimed that Loftus told her she was the supervisor of the psychiatrist with whom Taus reportedly remembered the molestation.