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Misinformation Effect: How False Memories Get Implanted (2D)

Interactive 2D model of the eyewitness misinformation effect: watch a memory trace decay over time, expose it to leading-question suggestion, and watch individual memory-feature nodes flip from true to false as source-monitoring confusion rises.

Cognitive Science2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-memory-learning ↗ Open standalone

Eyewitness memory isn't a recording — it's reconstructed every time it's recalled, and that reconstruction can absorb details that were never actually witnessed. This simulator models Elizabeth Loftus's misinformation-effect paradigm inside the source-monitoring framework: a 2D memory trace made of 24 feature-binding nodes starts fully accurate, then decays with time since the event and gets exposed to a leading-question "suggestion source." Each exposure has a real chance of silently overwriting a true detail with the suggested one — watch individual nodes flip from green to red as trace fidelity drops, the probability of reporting a false detail climbs, and the source-monitoring confusion index tracks how blurred the line between "what I saw" and "what I was told" becomes. A retrieval-practice toggle shows how testing your memory soon after an event protects it from later contamination.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 2D model of the eyewitness misinformation effect: watch a memory trace of 24 feature-binding nodes decay over time, expose it to leading-question suggestion, and see individual nodes flip from true to false as source-monitoring confusion rises.

memorymisinformation effecteyewitness testimonysource monitoringcognitive psychologyfalse memory2D

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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