Riva, an eyewitness to a crime that took place on her street, was asked to testify in court about her memory of the crime. Prior to her testimony, an attorney provided her with a written statement from another neighbor who had also viewed the crime. As a result of reading her neighbor's statement, which was different from her own, the accuracy of Riva's memory was altered, which eventually affected her testimony. This is an example of

• A. the misinformation effect.
• B. the levels-of-processing model.
• C. hindsight bias.
• D. the curve of forgetting.

Answer: (A)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Identify the key elements of the scenario: Riva's memory of the crime, the influence of the neighbor's statement, and the change in her testimony.
2. Understand the concept of the misinformation effect: It occurs when a person's recall of an event becomes less accurate due to post-event information.
3. Analyze how the neighbor's statement, which differed from Riva's original memory, serves as post-event information that could lead to the misinformation effect.
4. Consider alternative concepts: The levels-of-processing model relates to how deeply information is processed, hindsight bias involves seeing events as predictable after they have happened, and the curve of forgetting describes how information is lost over time.
5. Conclude that the scenario best illustrates the misinformation effect, as Riva's memory was altered by external information, affecting her testimony.