EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY AND SUGGESTIBILITY AS A FUNCTION OF RECALL ACCURACY - A DEVELOPMENTAL-STUDY

The present study is concerned with the question of whether and from what age on children are able to give reliable eyewitness testimony and can resist repeated suggestions. A total of 143 subjects from four age groups (Kleinkindergarten, 2nd graders, 4th graders, and adults) were shown a short video of a bicycle theft. One week later, subjects were individually interviewed in one of three experimental conditions. Answers to leading questions, reactions to repeated and increasingly suggestive questions and correct recognition were analyzed. In all measures there was an increase in the number of correct answers and an increase in the resistence to repeated suggestions with age, and significant differences in the amount of correct recall between central (well remembered) and peripheral (less well remembered) information.