It is possible that before eyewitnesses came forward to identify Randall Adams as the man who murdered a police officer, they had seen his face on television or in the newspaper. Because they saw Adams in the media, they might have come to believe that he was the man they saw on the road where the murder occurred. This is an example of __________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This situation is an example of source monitoring errors, where eyewitnesses might confuse seeing someone on television or in the newspaper with seeing them in real life, leading to mistaken identification. This is not an example of own-race bias, as there is no indication that the eyewitnesses' identification was influenced by the race of the suspect, nor is it an example of racial misidentification, as the question does not provide information about the race of either the suspect or the eyewitnesses. Finally, the question does not provide evidence that schemas are biasing attention in this case, so C is not the best choice.

It Is Possible That Before Eyewitnesses Came Forward to Identify