| The present study examined the effects of age on adults' memory for an eyewitness event. Young (M = 19.9 years), young-old (M = 68.8 years), and old-old adults (M = 82.8 years) viewed a video of a theft and answered questions about the event. Older adults had poorer memory performance; both groups of older adults recalled more incorrect information and less correct information than the young adult group. This finding is consistent with a large body of literature showing age-related impairments in remembering recently experienced events. In order to assess the validity of eyewitness memories, the judicial system places a great deal of emphasis on the confidence with which eyewitness memories are reported. Thus, the relationship between participants' confidence and accuracy, a process known as metamemory, was also assessed. Old-old adults were less proficient at monitoring the accuracy of their responses to individual questions than were young and young-old adults. In summary, both groups of older adults remembered less information about crimes they witnessed but deficits in memory monitoring were observed only in the old-old group. |
