Elderly Eyewitnesses

As the potential pool of elder witnesses continues to expand with the aging U.S. population, the age group referred to in the literature as older adults or seniors has become of greater interest to researchers. The group typically comprises healthy, active members of the community falling into the 60- to 80-year age band. Older eyewitnesses tend to provide less detailed and less [Page 253]accurate descriptions of actions and persons than younger witnesses when their processing resources are depleted, but they can provide as much information as younger witnesses under some conditions. With regard to face recognition, a number of recent studies suggest that older adults are more prone to what are referred to as false recognitions.