NCJ Number
162890
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 20 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1996) Pages: 359-373
Date Published
1996
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The experiment reported in this article was designed to examine eyewitness identification by 5- to 6-year-old children.
Abstract
Thirty-four children, 17 male and 17 female, were recruited from a local primary school in Dunedin, New Zealand. All subjects participated in a unique event in which they encountered four individuals. Two of the individuals were present for a long period of time and two were present only briefly. Children were interviewed about the event 1 to 2 days later. The experiment first compared children's accuracy when they were tested with photographic lineups that contained or did not contain the target individual. It then compared children's accuracy on both lineups as a function of the target's duration of exposure during the event. When tested with target-present lineups, 5- to 6-year-old children were very accurate in identifying individuals with whom they had prolonged exposure and were also accurate when asked to identify an individual who was present only briefly, but who was part of a salient aspect of the same event. In contrast, when tested with target-absent lineups, children's performance was very poor, regardless of whether the to-be-identified individual had been seen briefly or for a prolonged period of time. Future research should investigate ways to assist young children in making greater numbers of correct identifications under circumstances in which they have been shown to have some difficulty. Relevant questions that remain to be answered in future research are identified. 2 figures and 52 references