A test of age bias in children and adults in prospective person memory

Abstract

AbstractChildren are disproportionately represented amongst missing people in the United States. Search campaigns target adults to search for missing children, but age biases in face recognition may affect adults' efficacy at sighting missing children. We hypothesized that own‐age biases in children (7–9 years; N = 105) and adults (18–30 years; N = 108) would affect their ability to sight children and adults. Participants completed a prospective person memory task with a simultaneous ongoing task to simulate multi‐tasking while searching for missing people. Both child and adult participants were more accurate at sighting missing adults than missing children. Adults exhibited an own‐age bias. Adult participants were more accurate at sightings than child participants. In conclusion, adults were better suited to search for missing people of all ages than children, and this pattern of results may be impacted by experience with faces.