2010/06/30 by Aspasia Karageorge, Rachel Zajac · 11 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Audiology #Cognitive psychology #Deception detection and forensic psychology #Developmental psychology #Eyewitness identification #Face Recognition and Perception #Identification (biology) #Memory Processes and Influences #Psychology #Suspect
paper · doi:10.1348/000712610x507902
openalex publication_date 2010/06/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
We explored the effects of age and retention interval on several measures of children's person identification ability: verbal descriptions, lineup performance, and the success of a 'wildcard'--a photo of a silhouetted figure with a large question mark superimposed--in reducing children's tendency to choose from target-absent lineups. Children aged 5-7 years (N= 101) and 8-11 years (N= 109) were briefly exposed to an experimental confederate during a staged event. Either 1-2 days or 2 weeks later, children described the confederate and were then presented with either a target-present or -absent lineup. Within each group, approximately half of the children were presented with a wildcard and half were not. Target-present lineup performance improved as age increased. Compared to control children, children in the wildcard condition were more likely to correctly reject the target-absent lineup, and less likely to identify the innocent suspect. The wildcard did not influence children's target-present lineup accuracy, nor did delay exert an influence on any of our measures of lineup performance. These findings extend our knowledge of children's person identifications, as well as providing further support for the use of wildcards in photographic lineups.