All subjects were shown slides depicting a violent knifing incident between two men on the London Underground. Half were shown the altercation as occurring between two white men and half between a black and a white man. In all cases, the critical slide in which the knife was presented showed it to be in the hand of the white man. After a distraction interval of 45 minutes subjects were given forced-choice recognition and recall tests. The results indicated that those subjects who had seen the slides with the black and white protagonists were significantly less accurate than those who had seen only white protagonists though only where the recognition test preceded that of recall. The findings are discussed in terms of higher-order influences on memory and their implications for eyewitness accuracy. The contrasts between actual findings and those frequently misreported as having occurred are also noted. Two tables, 12 references. (Author abstract modified).