ADULTS EVALUATIONS OF CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDRENS MEMORY

A total of 701 adults evaluated qualities of the memories of children who were either 4,8, or 13 years of age. Respondents also evaluated tw o vignettes, one involving a girl's allegation of sexual abuse, the ot her a girl's denial that she stole money from her mother. Factor analy sis identified four dimensions on which children's memories were evalu ated: honesty, accuracy, source monitoring, and suggestibility. In gen eral, older children were seen as more accurate and better source moni tors, but less honest and equally as suggestible as younger children. Respondents who were parents themselves saw children as more honest an d better source monitors than did nonparents. In general, women saw ch ildren as more accurate and better source monitors than did men and ol der respondents tended to see children's memories as less accurate. Wo men, younger respondents, and nonparents were more likely to believe t he allegations about sexual abuse, but nonparents were less likely tha n parents to believe a girl's denial of a theft. Three respondent char acteristics-gender, age, and parental status, strongly affected genera l evaluations of children's memory both directly and in interaction wi th each other.