EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION BY 5 TO 6-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

Thirty-four 5- to 6-year-old children participated in a unique event i n which children interacted with 4 individuals-2 for a long period of time and 2 for a brief period only. Each child was interviewed I to 2 days later with photographic lineups that contained the target individ uals (target-present) or with lineups that did not (target-absent). Wh en tested with target-present lineups, 5- to 6-year-old children were very accurate in identifying individuals with whom they had prolonged exposure, and were also accurate when asked to identify an individual who was present only briefly but who was part of a salient aspect of t he same event. In contrast, when tested with target-absent lineups, ch ildren's performance was very poor regardless of whether the to-be-ide ntified individual had been seen briefly or for a prolonged period of rime. These data have important implications for eyewitness identifica tion by young children in clinical and legal settings.