Effects of gender and gender stereotyped attitudes on children's recall of an eyewitnessed event.

Abstract

This study investigated how perpetrator characteristics and eyewitnesses' gender and gender-role attitudes influenced what children recalled about a theft after a seven-week delay. A total of 104 participants (ages 6 to 8.5 years) were shown one of four theft versions (i.e., male consistent, male inconsistent, female consistent, and female inconsistent perpetrator) and asked to provide testimony immediately and again seven weeks later. Central features of the theft were recalled better than peripherally related features, especially during the immediate interview. Overall recall was less accurate after seven weeks than initially. Girls recalled peripherally related features more accurately, especially with the female-inconsistent perpetrator, than did boys, who in turn, recalled core features more accurately than did girls after seven weeks. Over time, girls also recalled peripheral information more accurately for the female-inconsistent rather than the female-consistent film version. Witnesses' recall for the perpetrator became worse over time. Although a same-sex bias was not found, children attended more to the male thief than to the female thief. Moreover, recall about the perpetrator contained more errors for boys than for girls. Children who watched the gender inconsistent versions produced more gender stereotyped transformations than gender astereotyped transformations. After seven weeks, children who viewed the gender inconsistent versions had worse recall for the perpetrator than those who viewed the gender consistent versions. Unlike previous investigations, children's stereotypes did not influence recall. Future researchers are advised to evaluate the proportion of central and peripheral features recalled and to consider how the witnesses' sex may influence accuracy in testimony. This study also demonstrated that children's memory for a theft event was affected when witnesses' viewed characters portraying astereotypical information. Because there has been little information about this phenomenon in eyewitness literature, researchers should conduct future investigations to determine the extent to which gender affects eyewitness reports.