Jermaine sees a car accident and initially estimates the offending driver to be travelling at 60 km/hr.However,after hearing another witness's report of the cars "bumping into each other" and answering a police officer's questions about the rate of speed when the cars "made contact," he subsequently revises his estimate to 50 km/hr and his memory of the accident changes.This is an example of
A)retroactive interference.
B)a flashbulb memory.
C)imagination inflation.
D)the misinformation effect.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of the misinformation effect, where new information (in this case, the witness report and police officer's questions) can change one's memory of an event. Retroactive interference would involve new learning affecting old memories, flashbulb memory is a highly detailed, vivid and emotionally charged memory of a significant event, and imagination inflation describes the phenomenon where imagining an event can make a person more likely to believe it actually happened.

Jermaine Sees a Car Accident and Initially Estimates the Offending