Question

In general, how would a 10-year-old child be a more reliable eyewitness regarding the facts of an event than a 40-year-old adult, and vice versa? why?

Answer 1

I believe that a ten-year-old would be a better eyewitness because generally kids are more attentive than adults when they see something they are interested in. A child is more likely to remember important details and then recall them from memory than an adult, whose mind is slowly deteriorating and he may forget relevant details. 

Answer 2

Adults pay more attention to what is being said to them, but kids take note of every situation around, even when they are being instructed to pay attention on a particular thing.  

when kids pay attention to everything, they tend to grasp new things very easily.  

Further Explanation

Latest study shows that kids spread their attention broadly and adult only pays attention to what they think it’s important to them. Children are so curious that they aim at trying everything.  

A research published in the developmental psychology demonstrates that distributing attention could be adaptive for young children and when they pay attention to everything around them, they tends to collect more information that help them to learn.  

The research stressed further that the difference that appear to paying attention between adults and children will help children to do better than adult in learning situations.

In the research, 34 adults and 36 four year old were evaluated. In the beginning of the experiment, irrelevant information was provided for adults and children, and all of a sudden the irrelevant information becomes important in the task before them.  

Adults found it difficult to readjust as a result of the fact that they thought the irrelevant information wouldn’t matter while children recovered quickly because they pay attention to everything.

KEYWORDS:

• developmental psychology.
• attention