Effects of label training and recall order on children's reports of a repeated event

Brubacher, Sonja P.; Earhart, Becky; Roberts, Kim P.; Powell, Martine B.

doi:10.1002/acp.3440

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(57 reference statements)

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“…Although spontaneous labels by children were rare, only one analogue study has provided insight into children's capabilities to provide effective labels when explicitly instructed to do so. This study found that children aged 6–8 years old were quite good at producing effective labels with appropriate interviewer scaffolding (Brubacher et al ., ). This is an important area for future research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…For example, ‘the time he kissed you’ is not an ideal label if the child was kissed on multiple occurrences. Interviewer‐generated labels are less likely to be specific to one occurrence because the interviewer is naïve about the events in question (Brubacher, Earhart, Roberts, & Powell, ), and non‐unique labels may contribute to greater confusion between events. Interviewers and legal professionals may benefit from guidance about clearly and consistently labelling occurrences of repeated events in order to maximize children's opportunities to provide accurate testimony.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracking labels for occurrences of alleged child abuse from police interviews to trials

Danby

Earhart

Brubacher

et al. 2019

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose Labelling (i.e., naming) individual occurrences of repeated abuse allegations with explicit and consistent terms may improve children's reporting of these offences. The aim of the present study was to track labels for occurrences of alleged child sexual abuse from the police interview to court proceedings. Methods We examined the labels used in the police interviews and trials of 23 child complainants (5–15 years old at interview). The initiator of each label (child, interviewer, lawyer, or judge), stage of the process in which the label was generated, and the type of information used to label specific occurrences of abuse were recorded. Any subsequent reuse or replacement of the labels was also recorded. Results Most labels were created by police interviewers. Few children generated labels. Most occurrences of abuse were labelled early in the legal process; 82% were first labelled either in the police interview or in the prosecution's opening statement. The labels were frequently replaced with alternate terms, with an average of three different labels for the same incident. After original labels were established for occurrences, they were just as likely to be replaced as they were to be reused. The most frequently observed label replacement was by defence lawyers during cross‐examination. Conclusions Labels were used inconsistently throughout the police interview and trial. To give children the best chance of describing specific occurrences of abuse during legal proceedings, labels should be created from children's words wherever possible and used consistently thereafter by all justice professionals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking labels for occurrences of alleged child abuse from police interviews to trials

Danby

Earhart

Brubacher

et al. 2019

Legal Criminol Psychol

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“…Indeed, in analog studies nearly all errors about repeated events are "internal" intrusions in which children report experienced details but confuse the occurrence (source). A sample of 455 children collapsed across several studies illustrates this principle (Brubacher, Earhart, Roberts, & Powell, 2018;Brubacher, Glisic, Roberts, & Powell, 2011a;Brubacher, Roberts, & Powell, 2011b;Brubacher, Roberts, & Powell, 2012; with 51 children from unpublished data). Among a group of 4-to 8-year-olds who participated in four events that included some varying details from one occurrence to the next, the mean number of fabricated details (not from the event set) during free recall was just 0.55…”

Section: Children's Narratives Contain Detail Errors and Young Children Have Weaker Filters For Some Types Of Errorsmentioning

confidence: 97%

How children talk about events: Implications for eliciting and analyzing eyewitness reports

Brubacher

Peterson

Rooy

et al. 2019

Developmental Review

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Legal and social service professionals often question whether various features of young witnesses' responses during interviews are characteristic of children's event reports or whether these features are concerning findings that reflect degraded memory, outside influence, or other phenomena. To assist helping professionals and researchers who collect data through interviews, we aggregated findings from child eyewitness studies and revisited transcript sets to construct fifteen principles that capture how children talk about events. These principles address children's earliest event narratives, how children report information as interviews unfold and typical features of their narratives, threats to the accuracy of answers, the influence of interviewers' language on children's styles of reporting, how testimonies compare across multiple interviews and multiple witnesses to the same event, and the structure of accurate and inaccurate reports. A summary table highlights the implications of these principles for interviewers and the decision-makers who analyze children's reports.

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“…Thus, evidence shows that reliable cues both reinstate the context of the experienced event (Tulving & Thomson, 1973) and provide diagnostic information about specific memories (principle of cue overload; Goh & Lu, 2012;Nairne, 2002). Based on previous applied research, we expected that the use of self-generated cues would facilitate the discrimination of specific instances thereby improving recall while reducing source confusion (Brubacher et al, 2018;Willén et al, 2015).…”

Section: Interviewing Techniques To Facilitate Recall and Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitating recall and particularisation of repeated events in adults using a multi-method interviewing format

Kontogianni

Rubínová

Hope

et al. 2021

Memory

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Reports about repeated experiences tend to include more schematic information than information about specific instances. However, investigators in both forensic and intelligence settings typically seek specific over general information. We tested a multi-method interviewing format (MMIF) to facilitate recall and particularisation of repeated events through the use of the self-generated cues mnemonic, the timeline technique, and followup questions. Over separate sessions, 150 adult participants watched four scripted films depicting a series of meetings in which a terrorist group planned attacks and planted explosive devices. For half of our sample, the third witnessed event included two deviations (one new detail and one changed detail). A week later, participants provided their account using the MMIF, the timeline technique with self-generated cues, or a free recall format followed by open-ended questions. As expected, more information was reported overall in the MMIF condition compared to the other format conditions, for two types of details, correct details, and correct gist details. The reporting of internal intrusions was comparable across format conditions. Contrary to hypotheses, the presence of deviations did not benefit recall or source monitoring. Our findings have implications for information elicitation in applied settings and for future research on adults' retrieval of repeated events.

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Effects of label training and recall order on children's reports of a repeated event

Cited by 9 publications

References 31 publications

Tracking labels for occurrences of alleged child abuse from police interviews to trials

Tracking labels for occurrences of alleged child abuse from police interviews to trials

How children talk about events: Implications for eliciting and analyzing eyewitness reports

Facilitating recall and particularisation of repeated events in adults using a multi-method interviewing format

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