A Comparison of Adult Witnesses' Suggestibility Across Various Types of Leading Questions

Sharman, Stefanie J.; Powell, Martine B.

doi:10.1002/acp.1793

Cited by 43 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Therefore, the leading information within the question may have triggered memory recall in children and prompted verbose responses. As such questions can significantly compromise the accuracy of children's and adults' accounts (Ceci et al, 2002;Sharman & Powell, 2012) and are particularly harmful to the accounts of Aboriginal witnesses (Eades, 2008(Eades, , 2013, we strongly discourage the use of suggestive questions with Aboriginal children. This finding, however, points to the idea of including nonsuggestive cues in open-ended questions with Aboriginal children.…”

Section: Substantive Phasementioning

confidence: 93%

Investigative Interviewing of Aboriginal Children in Cases of Suspected Sexual Abuse

Hamilton

Brubacher

Powell

2016

Journal of Child Sexual Abuse

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This study examined the investigative interviewing of Australian Aboriginal children in cases of alleged sexual abuse, with a focus on three commonly included components of interview protocols: ground rules, practice narrative, and substantive phase. Analysis of 70 field transcripts revealed that the overall delivery and practice of ground rules at the beginning of the interview was positively associated with the spontaneous usage of rules in children's narratives of abuse. When specifically examining the "don't know" rule, however, only practice had an effect of children's usage of the rule (as opposed to simple delivery or no delivery at all). Children spoke more words overall, and interviewers used more open-ended prompts during the substantive phase when the interviews contained a practice narrative. Children most often disclosed sexual abuse in response to an open-ended prompt; however, they produced the most words in response to suggestive prompts. This article concludes with a discussion of the effectiveness of ground rules, practice narratives, and questioning with Aboriginal children.

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Section: Substantive Phasementioning

confidence: 93%

Investigative Interviewing of Aboriginal Children in Cases of Suspected Sexual Abuse

Hamilton

Brubacher

Powell

2016

Journal of Child Sexual Abuse

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“…Leading questions were alternated with misleading questions in order to decrease children's suspicion of the interviewer. For diversity, leading and misleading questions also alternated between formats: (1) forced‐choice (e.g., ‘Did the Deakin Activities happen on a Thursday or a Friday?’); (2) specific cued‐recall (e.g., ‘What colour was the lady's bag?’); (3) closed yes/no (e.g., ‘Did the koala puppet have a friend?’); and (4) closed tag (e.g., ‘You ran around in a circle, didn't you?’) (Sharman & Powell, ). Each interview was concluded by thanking the child for being helpful.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of face‐to‐face versus live video‐feed interviewing on children's event reports

Hamilton

Whiting

Brubacher

et al. 2016

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose Recent advances in technology have raised a potentially promising service to overcome difficulties associated with remote witnesses: live video‐feed interviews. The efficacy of this mode of interviewing, however, lacks empirical evidence, particularly with children in an investigative context. Methods This study explored the effects of live video‐feed compared to face‐to‐face interviewing on the memory reports of 100 children (aged 5–12). Children participated in an innocuous event and were interviewed 1–2 days later by experienced interviewers. Results Analyses indicated that live video‐feed interviewing was just as effective as face‐to‐face interviewing in terms of the accuracy and informativeness of children's accounts. Video‐feed interviews, however, required a higher number of clarification prompts compared to face‐to‐face interviews. These findings were not influenced by children's familiarity with technology. Conclusions An initial test of live video‐feed interviewing indicates it is a safe and effective method for interviewing children about an innocuous event.

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“…open questions), not least the dangers of leading, closed questions (e.g. Sharman & Powell, 2012). Current 'gold standard' interview techniques, such as the Cognitive Interview (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992) and the National Institute for Child Health and Development Protocol (NICHD; Lamb, Orbach, Hershkowitz, Esplin, & Horowitz, 2007) endorse the use of open-ended questions with compliant witnesses (for overview, see Vrij, Hope, & Fisher, 2014).…”

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory and the operational witness: Police officer recall of firearms encounters as a function of active response role.

Hope¹,

Blocksidge²,

Gabbert³

et al. 2016

Law and Human Behavior

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Investigations after critical events often depend on accurate and detailed recall accounts from operational witnesses (e.g., law enforcement officers, military personnel, and emergency responders). However, the challenging, and often stressful, nature of such events, together with the cognitive demands imposed on operational witnesses as a function of their active role, may impair subsequent recall. We compared the recall performance of operational active witnesses with that of nonoperational observer witnesses for a challenging simulated scenario involving an armed perpetrator. Seventy-six police officers participated in pairs. In each pair, 1 officer (active witness) was armed and instructed to respond to the scenario as they would in an operational setting, while the other (observer witness) was instructed to simply observe the scenario. All officers then completed free reports and responded to closed questions. Active witnesses showed a pattern of heart rate activity consistent with an increased stress response during the event, and subsequently reported significantly fewer correct details about the critical phase of the scenario. The level of stress experienced during the scenario mediated the effect of officer role on memory performance. Across the sample, almost one-fifth of officers reported that the perpetrator had pointed a weapon at them although the weapon had remained in the waistband of the perpetrator’s trousers throughout the critical phase of the encounter. These findings highlight the need for investigator awareness of both the impact of operational involvement and stress-related effects on memory for ostensibly salient details, and reflect the importance of careful and ethical information elicitation techniques.

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A Comparison of Adult Witnesses' Suggestibility Across Various Types of Leading Questions

Cited by 43 publications

References 28 publications

Investigative Interviewing of Aboriginal Children in Cases of Suspected Sexual Abuse

Investigative Interviewing of Aboriginal Children in Cases of Suspected Sexual Abuse

The effects of face‐to‐face versus live video‐feed interviewing on children's event reports

Memory and the operational witness: Police officer recall of firearms encounters as a function of active response role.

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