An Eyewitness from a Crime Is Asked to Look Through

question 356

Multiple Choice

An eyewitness from a crime is asked to look through some mugshots to see if he can identify the person who committed the crime. After doing this, he sees a police lineup of suspects and identifies one of the men as the person who committed the crime because he looks very familiar. Unfortunately, the man in the lineup looks familiar not because the eyewitness saw him commit the crime, but because he saw his face in the mugshot books a few hours ago and the eyewitness has forgotten this. This example best demonstrates the phenomenon of

• A)proactive interference
• B)retrograde amnesia
• C)source confusion
• D)memory consolidation

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Definitions:

Rods and Cones

Specialized types of photoreceptor cells in the retina that are responsible for vision in low light (rods) and color vision and detailed vision in brighter light (cones).

Retina

The light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the inner eye, containing photoreceptor cells that convert light into neural signals.

Brain

Ganglionic mass at the anterior end of the nerve cord; in vertebrates, the brain is located in the cranial cavity of the skull.

Lens

A transparent, flexible structure in the eye that focuses light onto the retina to produce clear images.