Elderly Eyewitnesses

Recall of Persons, Actions, and Events

Where comparisons have been made between different age groups, young adults have been found to be superior to older adults in some eyewitness skills. For example, Dan Yarmey in his studies reports that young adults are more accurate in their recall of perpetrator characteristics, environmental details, and details of actions than older adults. This applies to both free recall (where the witness provides a narrative account from his or her own perspective) and cued recall (where the witness responds to interviewer questions). Older adult witnesses tend to provide fewer descriptions of the perpetrator (physical and clothing characteristics) than younger witnesses. Differences between young and older adults in the amount and accuracy of recall may be even greater over long retention intervals (such as a month) and when conditions at the time of witnessing are poor, reducing the resources that are available to attend to what is happening. This may mean that there are fewer cues available at the time a witness tries to retrieve the information. Fergus Craik's classic work on memory processes indicates that older adults benefit from “environmental support” during questioning (the retrieval phase). This could take the form of an interview that provides the witness with some instruction on how to recreate, during retrieval, the personal, physical, and emotional context at the time of witnessing. For example, when older adults are questioned with a Cognitive Interview, a procedure that can aid memory search and retrieval, they can recall as much and sometimes even more information than younger adults. One qualification should be borne in mind, however. The educational level and verbal intelligence of the adult (young and old) appear to be important factors in boosting his or her recall performance, as compared with younger adults. While further research is needed on this issue, police officers and jurors should note that although verbal recall can be reduced in old age, a verbally skilled and well-educated senior can be just as reliable a witness as a young adult.

Susceptibility to Misinformation

Several recent studies have shown that older adults may experience difficulty in distinguishing between what they have witnessed themselves as opposed to what they may have heard from someone else (i.e., a problem identifying the precise source of the information). A typical consequence is that any misleading information that may be encountered subsequent to witnessing an event is erroneously reported as if it were part of the original event. However, older adults are not always more susceptible to misinformation. The contradictory findings are likely due to the fact that older adults are remembering less information overall, and this may also mean that they may pay less attention to misleading details. Additionally, there are differential rates of memory declines in older adults depending on educational level, verbal intelligence, intellectual pursuits, expertise in different skill domains, and level of physical activity. Finally, the conditions under which older adults are tested in laboratory studies (e.g., video presentation of event, short retention interval, and single interview) may obscure differences in performance that might arise under more realistic test conditions.

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