Age

Age

1. Yarney (1993)

   • 651 adults
     • Recount characteristics of a women they just met
       • Young (18-29) and Middle (30-44) more confident than Older (45-65), but no significant differences in accuracy of recall

2. Memon et al. (2003)

   • Same as Yarney
     • Added a delay of 1 week before recall
       • Found that after delay, older group (60-82) significantly less accurate than the younger (16-33) witnesses
         • Therefore not just age that effects accuracy it is age and delay (delay causes more significant differences in accuracy)

3. AO2

   • Criticised that they didn't take into account the age of the stranger, even though they had control over who they used
     • This could have led to age bias - more accurate with own group
       • All studies shown that older witnesses have poorer performance on tests of EWM and on face recognition in particular. But maybe due to most experiments using college-aged stimulus material. Perhaps better accuracy of recall when the person being used is in own age bracket?
       • This is supported by
         • Anastasi and Rhodes (2006)
           • 3 age groups; 24 photos with all 3 age groups included
             • Later presented with 48 photos and had to select the 24 from the original set
               • Showed older participants were weakest in recalling accurately
                 • Every group more accurate with own age group
   • Why is research not consistent? Yarney (no difference) vs. Memon (difference)
     • This uncertainty therefore means we should treat the studies with caution when looking at how age effects accuracy of EWT
       • Therefore lacks validity
   • Lacks validity (external)
     • There is more anxiety in a real life crime situation
       • Yerkes-Dodson law
         • Therefore difficult to generalise findings outside of study setting to real life crime situations
           • Lacks ecological validity