NCJ Number
121916
Date Published
1989
Length
276 pages
Annotation
Age alone is not a very good predictor of the accuracy of an eyewitness.
Abstract
Subjects included 120 persons with ages ranging from 20 to 75. Verbal recall was tested by showing two films depicting a minor theft. Results of the study indicate that age differences exist on some eyewitness memory tasks, but not on others. Age differences were found on identification accuracy. However, age was not as good a predictor of identification accuracy as education was in a negative direction. Age differences were not found for the verbal recall of crimes nor for the recognition of objects. The elderly were not more suggestible than young or middle-aged subjects, although they were influenced differently by different misleading information. Age differences were not found for the confidence-accuracy correlations, although the tests of the correlations were far from powerful. Future research might find stronger evidence of age differences in the relationship between accuracy and confidence.