Abstract:The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the eyewitness memory performance of 3- and 5-year-old African American children (N = 33) from low-income households. The children were asked to remember the routine details of a physical examination immediately after the physical exam and again after a delay interval of 6 weeks. Age-related changes in children's memory performance were found, with the older children remembering more than the young children. Five-year-olds recalled more information in response to open-ended questions, provided greater elaborative details of the examination, and exhibited greater consistency in their recall across both of the interviews than did their younger counterparts. Children's abilities to resist incongruous questions were markedly low, with correct-denial rates of the 3-year-olds being below chance levels and those of the 5-year-olds just above chance levels. Significant correlations were found between mental age scores derived from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 3rd edition, and the children's rates of correct denials and false alarms. The findings are discussed in terms of cognitive processes and language development among economically disadvantaged African American children.

中文翻译：

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低收入家庭的非洲裔美国儿童的目击者记忆

摘要：本研究的目的是调查低收入家庭的3岁和5岁非洲裔美国儿童（N = 33）的目击者记忆表现。要求孩子们在身体检查后立即记住身体检查的常规细节，并在间隔6周后再次记住。发现与年龄有关的孩子记忆力的变化，大孩子比小孩子记忆更多。五岁的孩子在回答开放式问题时回想起更多的信息，提供了更多详细的考试细节，并且两次面试的回想力都比年轻的同龄人更好。儿童抵抗不协调问题的能力明显较低，3岁儿童的正确拒绝率低于机会水平，而5岁儿童的正确拒绝率恰好高于机会水平。发现从Peabody图片词汇测试（第3版）获得的心理年龄得分与儿童正确拒绝和错误警报的比率之间存在显着相关性。在经济上处于不利地位的非洲裔美国儿童中，就认知过程和语言发展方面对研究结果进行了讨论。