The effects of the age of eyewitnesses on the accuracy and suggestibility of their testimony

Abstract

Previous studies have compared the performance of young adult eyewitnesses with that of children or elderly eyewitnesses, but few studies have allowed direct comparison of the performance of all three age groups. The accuracy and suggestibility of accounts of a video recording of a kidnapping were investigated using an experimental eyewitness paradigm. Subjects were drawn from three age groups: children (aged 7–9 years); young adults (aged 16–18 years) and elderly subjects (aged 60–85 years). Subjects' accuracy in answering non‐misleading questions and their susceptibility to misleading information was measured. Both the elderly and child subjects gave fewer correct answers and more incorrect answers to non‐misleading questions than did young adults. The elderly subjects gave fewer correct responses but also fewer incorrect responses to non‐misleading questions than did child subjects. Children were more suggestible than either elderly or young adults. No significant difference was found in the suggestibility of elderly and young adults. Contrary to the trace strength hypothesis no relationship was found between accuracy of recall and suggestibility. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

I misremember it well: Why older adults are unreliable eyewitnesses

“…This pattern of behavior is particularly worrisome, given the influence of eyewitness confidence on jury decision making. Further research is critical for determining the generality of our findings, since some studies have shown no age-related differences in the overall magnitude of the suggestibility effect, although no other study has been performed to examine how the tendency to make suggestibility errors varies with changes in confidence (e.g., Coxon & Valentine, 1997;Gabbert, Memon, & Allan, 2003; see Bartlett & Memon, in press, for a review). Finally, a favorable result emerged in the performance of the younger adults in the delay condition.…”

Learning Facts From Fiction: Effects of Healthy Aging and Early-Stage Dementia of the Alzheimer Type.

“…Our review of the literature yielded three studies in which older adults were more suggestible than younger adults (Cohen & Faulkner, 1989;Loftus, Levidow, & Duensing, 1992;Mitchell, Johnson, & Mather, 2002). A fourth study found no age differences in suggestibility (Coxon & Valentine, 1997), and a fifth found younger adults to be more suggestible in some circumstances (Marche, Jordan, & Owre, 2002). Suggestibility in the eyewitness and other paradigms does not necessarily imply suggestibility in the fiction paradigm.…”

Influence of post‐event narratives, line‐up conditions and individual differences on false identification by young and older eyewitnesses

“…These age diVerences might reasonably be expected to extend to eyewitness identi cation. Qualifying this expectation, however, are mixed results from the few studies testing for age diVerences in misleading information eVects in the eyewitness paradigm (Cohen & Faulkner, 1989;Weingard, Toland, & Loftus, 1994; but see Coxon & Valentine, 1997). A possible reason for the inconsistent ndings with respect to age diVerences might be variations in the context in which the misinformation is presented.…”