Eyewitness Memory in African American Children From Low-Income Families

Abstract:The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the eyewitness memory performance of 3- and 5-year-old African American children (N = 33) from low-income households. The children were asked to remember the routine details of a physical examination immediately after the physical exam and again after a delay interval of 6 weeks. Age-related changes in children's memory performance were found, with the older children remembering more than the young children. Five-year-olds recalled more information in response to open-ended questions, provided greater elaborative details of the examination, and exhibited greater consistency in their recall across both of the interviews than did their younger counterparts. Children's abilities to resist incongruous questions were markedly low, with correct-denial rates of the 3-year-olds being below chance levels and those of the 5-year-olds just above chance levels. Significant correlations were found between mental age scores derived from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 3rd edition, and the children's rates of correct denials and false alarms. The findings are discussed in terms of cognitive processes and language development among economically disadvantaged African American children.