Children's Susceptibility to Repeated Questions: How Misinformation Changes Children's Answers and Their Minds

Bjorklund, David F.; Bjorklund, Barbara R.; Brown, Rhonda Douglas; Cassel, William S.

doi:10.1207/s1532480xads0202_4

Cited by 76 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Most importantly, the RES effect persisted for peripheral items even when both the initial and final tests were administered in a free recall format. Similar to previous reports, the free recall format is highly resistant to the influence of misinformation (Bjorklund et al, 1998(Bjorklund et al, , 2000, such that the non-tested participants recalled very little of the peripheral misinformation they encountered (M = .10). Remarkably, initial testing nearly doubled false recall probability for these items (M = .19), t(118) = 2.57, d = .47, p < .02 (refer to Figure 3).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Further, despite the vast literature on eyewitness suggestibility, a surprisingly small number of studies have examined the influence of misinformation on free recall performance. Of the few studies that used free recall as the final test, some have failed to demonstrate any discernable misinformation effect (Bjorklund, Bjorklund, Brown, & Cassel, 1998;Bjorklund, Cassell, Bjorklund, et al, 2000). Therefore, whether initial testing can produce confidently held false memories for misinformation that persist in a free recall final test remains to be seen (cf., Roediger & McDermott, 1995).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Retrieval enhances eyewitness suggestibility to misinformation in free and cued recall.

Wilford¹,

Chan²,

Tuhn³

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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Immediately recalling a witnessed event can increase people's susceptibility to later postevent misinformation. But this retrieval-enhanced suggestibility (RES) effect has been shown only when the initial recall test included specific questions that reappeared on the final test. Moreover, it is unclear whether this phenomenon is affected by the centrality of event details. These limitations make it difficult to generalize RES to criminal investigations, which often begin with free recall prior to more specific queries from legal officials and attorneys. In 3 experiments, we examined the influence of test formats (free recall vs. cued recall) and centrality of event details (central vs. peripheral) on RES. In Experiment 1, both the initial and final tests were cued recall. In Experiment 2, the initial test was free recall and the final test was cued recall. In Experiment 3, both the initial and final tests were free recall. Initial testing increased misinformation reporting on the final test for peripheral details in all experiments, but the effect was significant for central details only after aggregating the data from all 3 experiments. These results show that initial free recall can produce RES, and more broadly, that free recall can potentiate subsequent learning of complex prose materials. Immediately recalling a witnessed event can increase people's susceptibility to later post-

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieval enhances eyewitness suggestibility to misinformation in free and cued recall.

Wilford¹,

Chan²,

Tuhn³

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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“…Free recall or even answers to specific questions are less likely to detect significant memory accuracy impairments when false information has been presented only once and the critical memory test is not administered right after the presentation of misinformation (Sutherland and Hayne, 2001). In fact, free recall has been shown to be relative immune to contamination through false information (Bjorklund et al, 1998). If such indicators for memory performance had been employed, the experimental manipulation might not have resulted in significant differences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental reinstatement of the misinformation context and the misinformation effect in children and adults

Roebers

McConkey

2003

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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The present study investigated the effects of mental reinstatement of the context in which misleading information about an event was presented on later recognition memory for the event. Five-year-olds, 7-year-olds and adults were shown a short video depicting a children's adventure and were asked a set of misleading questions to introduce misinformation one week later. Before the recognition memory test was administered another week later, half of the participants were given instructions to mentally reinstate the context of the misleading interview. Memory was assessed with a set of forced-choice recognition questions once in the misleading interview context and for the children a second time at home one week later. When participants were instructed to mentally reinstate the context of the misleading interview prior to the recognition test, false memory reports occurred more often for adults than for children and had a stronger impact on peripheral information than on central information for both 7-year-olds and adults. When 5-and 7-year-olds were tested at home, false memory reports decreased. Thus, reinstating the context of an interview introducing misinformation can reduce the accuracy of memory reports; the context dependence of both accurate and inaccurate memory reports in children and adults is discussed.The finding that exposure to misleading post-event information can result in the inclusion of incorrect information in subsequent memory reports of an event has important theoretical, practical and legal implications. Since the work summarized by Loftus (1979), a typical misinformation study involves participants first viewing the target event, being presented with false information about details of the event, and then having their memory for the event assessed. Participants' inclusion of incorrect information into memory reports of experienced events following an exposure to post-event misinformation is generally referred to as the misinformation effect. Although the way in which studies have measured misinformation effects varies considerably, there is consensus that the memory reports from children and adults are likely to be less accurate after exposure to misinformation (e.g. There are also important developmental differences in how much misinformation affects later memory performance. Numerous studies have shown that younger children are more suggestible in response to misleading questions (e.g. Cassel et al., 1996), are

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“…Because option-posing and suggestive questions by definition involve the introduction of information by the investigator, they have the potential to contaminate later phases of the child's report, especially when younger children are involved (Bjorklund, Bjorklund, Brown, & Cassel, 1998;Memon, Wark, Holley, Bull, & Köhnken, 1996), and thus their delayed utilization is forensically important. Clearly, forensic interviewers should provide children with Although implementation of the protocol fostered substantial reductions in the number of details elicited using option-posing and suggestive prompts, such information still amounted to approximately one quarter of the total elicited even when the protocol was used.…”

Section: The Nichd Investigative Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

A structured forensic interview protocol improves the quality and informativeness of investigative interviews with children: A review of research using the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol

Lamb

Orbach

Hershkowitz

et al. 2007

Child Abuse & Neglect

519

439

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Objective-To show how the results of research on children's memory, communicative skills, social knowledge, and social tendencies can be translated into guidelines that improve the quality of forensic interviews of children.Method-We review studies designed to evaluate children's capacities as witnesses, explain the development of the structured NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol, and discuss studies designed to assess whether use of the Protocol enhances the quality of investigative interviews.Results-Controlled studies have repeatedly shown that the quality of interviewing reliably and dramatically improves when interviewers employ the NICHD Protocol. No other technique has been proven to be similarly effective.Conclusions-Use of the structured NICHD Protocol improves the quality of information obtained from alleged victims by investigators, thereby increasing the likelihood that interventions will be appropriate. IntroductionWhereas Kempe and his colleagues (1962) helped launch scholarly interest in physical child abuse with their landmark paper nearly 50 years ago, professional (and popular) interest in child sexual abuse came much later. It was prompted in part by dramatic increases in the numbers of reported cases, and by awareness that many cases of abuse might go unrecognized Correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed to Michael E. Lamb, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, UK. E-mail: mel37@cam.ac.uk. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptChild Abuse Negl. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 January 9. Published in final edited form as:Child Abuse Negl. 2007 ; 31(11-12): 1201-1231. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript because the victims were the only possible sources of information and were seldom given the appropriate opportunities to describe their experiences to those who might have been able to help them. Indeed, because alleged victims are often the only available sources of information, considerable efforts have been made to understand how children's testimony can be made as useful and accurate as possible. Since 1990, furthermore, highly publicized cases in the United States (California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Florida), Norway (Bergen), New Zealand (Christchurch), and the UK (Cleveland, Newcastle), among others, have drawn attention to the counterproductive ways in which alleged victims of sexual abuse are sometimes interviewed. In many such cases, inappr...

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Children's Susceptibility to Repeated Questions: How Misinformation Changes Children's Answers and Their Minds

Cited by 76 publications

References 10 publications

Retrieval enhances eyewitness suggestibility to misinformation in free and cued recall.

Retrieval enhances eyewitness suggestibility to misinformation in free and cued recall.

Mental reinstatement of the misinformation context and the misinformation effect in children and adults

A structured forensic interview protocol improves the quality and informativeness of investigative interviews with children: A review of research using the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol

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