weapon focus phenomenon, where not all samples of participants have reacted in the same way to the presence of a weapon, namely children. In some situations, like domestic violence, children can be crucial eyewitnesses, so recent research has looked at the age at which the weapon focus effect becomes influential. One study looked at the impacts of a surprising object on the memory of children, using a syringe filled with red dye in place of a classic weapon. The presence of the syringe caused a reduction in performance on a memory task, suggesting that the children diverted a significant proportion of their attention to the weapon, so that their recall ability was negatively impacted. This implies that the weapon focus effect does not exclusively occur in adults. At a similar time, Pickel et al. (2008) conducted comparable research, which used videos containing either a weapon or neutral object. Again, children recalled significantly less accurate information when a knife was involved as opposed to a water bottle. The researchers attributed this to the unexpected nature of the knife and schema violation. Adults were found to be more accurate in general with their recollection of the perpetrator than children; language abilities, appreciation for the situation and differing locations were all implicated in these asymmetries. Reducing weapon focus and its impact on criminal cases Pickel, Ross, and Truelove (2006) decided to take a more in depth look at these ideas and apply them specifically to reducing weapon focus. If weapon focus is an automatic process, then the capture of attention may be out of an eyewitness' control. However, if there is no automatic capture of the witness' attention, then weapon focus effect may be able to be overcome. Specific training can be developed to teach a person who may be at risk of an armed robbery, such as a bank teller or cashier, to perform an identification that is comparable to if there was no weapon present. The data indicate that weapons do not capture attention automatically and involuntarily. If a witness was given a lecture about weapon focus and the problems that can arise in memory formation in an incident when a weapon is present at the scene, they can more accurately identify a perpetrator of a crime. This shows that with proper training weapon focus effect can be overcome and an eyewitness' testimony becomes more accurate. These findings, however, are theoretical