Understanding Eyewitness Memory and Its Fallibility

These flashcards cover key concepts related to eyewitness memory, the cognitive biases affecting its reliability, and the psychological processes underlying memory recall.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to reinterpret past events to fit the outcome that is now known, leading to distorted memories.

Overconfidence Effect

A cognitive bias where a person's subjective confidence in their judgments is greater than their objective accuracy.

Eyewitness Testimony

A legal term referring to an account given by people of an event they witnessed; often less reliable than believed.

Reconstructive Memory

The process of memory retrieval where memories are reconstructed and can be altered by various factors.

Source Monitoring Error

The inability to remember the origin of a memory, often leading to misattribution of details.

Misinformation Effect

When a person's memory of an event is altered by information presented after the event, such as leading questions or media reports.

Eyewitness Fallibility

The concept acknowledging that eyewitness accounts can be inaccurate and influenced by various cognitive biases.

CognitiveDissonance

The mental discomfort experienced when holding two contradictory beliefs, leading to altered perceptions and memories.