Proactive Interference Affect Eyewitness

Decent Essays
Although our brains have the capability to store a near infinite amount of memories they are not always reliable when it comes to retrieving these memories. Often times when eyewitnesses describe what they saw, their memories are false or unreliable. These accounts are unreliable because of proactive and retroactive interference. The book says that proactive interference is when past memories interfere with the present. This could affect eyewitness accounts because if the eyewitness was in a witness of a crime before, they could mix the two crimes together and possibly accuse the wrong person. Retroactive interference can affect eyewitness accounts as well, except in the reverse. Retroactive interference is when the present interferes

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