Age Effects in Earwitness Recall of a Novel Conversation

Abstract

Recall of conversation is an important part of memory for events. Previous studies have focused predominantly on adults. In the present study, 195 participants ages 11 to 63 years listened to a novel audiotaped conversation. They were not informed they would later have to recall elements of this conversation. Recall was a week later. There were no age-related differences in the recall of children ages 11, 13, and 15; however, there was a difference between retention over 7 days of children and adults, with adults recalling more information correctly. No sex differences were observed. These results are evaluated in the context of research on eye- and ear-witness recall and suggestions for research are given.