Research on eyewitness reliability reveals that the poorer a witness' memory, the more suggestible she may be. Because a weapon impairs witness' memory for the target, witnesses should be more suggestible when a weapon is present than when it is absent. This hypothesis has not been tested; additionally, researchers have yet to examine the weapon focus effect among children. It is thought that children are generally more suggestible than adults, but very little empirical research has been conducted to examine the extent of this difference with respect to facial recognition memory. The current study examined whether children are more susceptible to suggestion than adults during a lineup proceeding.
Three groups of participants were tested: 3-5 year olds, 9-11 year olds, and adults. Participants were asked to watch one of three versions of a 10-second video. In one version, a man carried a kitchen knife; in another, he carried a coffee mug. In the control condition, he carried nothing. After a 20-minute retention interval, participants viewed either a target present or target absent photographic lineup and made a decision about whether or not the target was present. Subsequently, they were induced to make a choice of a particular lineup member, which was different from the one they chose if they made a choice.
Results indicated that the preschool children were less accurate than older children and adults. This difference was much more pronounced on the target absent lineup than the target present lineup. Preschool children also chose at a higher rate than 9-11 year olds and adults. A high level of confidence was associated with lower suggestibility for all ages. Preschoolers were more confident than the other two age groups in both the target absent and target present lineups. No weapon focus effect was found.