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Incidental Recall of Colour Information by Children and Adults
Author(s) -
Ling Jonathan,
Blades Mark
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199604)10:2<141::aid-acp379>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - recall , psychology , surprise , recall test , free recall , test (biology) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , paleontology , biology
The ability to recall colours that have only been experienced incidentally (i.e. without deliberately being learnt) is an important aspect of eyewitness recall. However, little is known about the accuracy of adults or children's incidental recall of colours, and the results from previous studies of incidental colour memory have been contradictory—some have found that participants have very good recall for colours, other studies have found very poor recall for colours. Previous studies have not compared adults' and children's performance in the same experiment. This experiment tested 4‐year‐olds, 6‐year‐olds, 9‐year‐olds and adults who were shown a model room, containing six pieces of furniture. While participants were watching, a different miniature item was placed on each of the pieces of furniture in the model room. There were six items and each had a different colour. After a delay of 30 minutes participants were given a surprise memory test to assess their recall for the colour and location of the items. All the age groups were very accurate at recalling both the items' colours and their locations. The implications of accurate incidental colour recall for eyewitness performance are discussed.