An eyewitness accurately reports that a thief wore a red jacket. The eyewitness then sees a lineup in which the thief is wearing a blue jacket. She later reports that the thief wore a blue jacket during the theft. This error is most likely due to which of the following?
A) retrieval confusion
B) an error in initial encoding
C) source confusion
D) interference

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This error is most likely due to source confusion, which occurs when a person confuses the source of their memory. In this case, the eyewitness may have seen the thief wearing a blue jacket during the lineup and mistakenly attributed that information to their memory of the actual theft.

An Eyewitness Accurately Reports That a Thief Wore a Red