Interrogative Suggestibility and Ability to Give Resistant Responses in Children with Mild Intellectual Disabilities and Borderline Intellectual Functioning

Abstract

Children with intellectual disabilities can be victims of crimes but are generally deemed less reliable in the forensic context than children without disabilities. Their deficits may cause inaccurate recall, greater memory errors, and greater suggestive vulnerability. The aim of the present study is to verify the effects of intellectual abilities on recall tasks, levels of suggestibility, vulnerability to negative social pressure, and Resistant Behavioural Responses (RBR). The study involved 120 children aged 7–16 years who were administered the GSS2 (1997) and Raven Matrices. Forty children had a diagnosis of mild intellectual disability (MID), 40 had borderline intellectual functioning (BIF), and 40 were typically developing peers. Children with MID and BIF showed more errors in distortions, inventions, and confabulations at the recall task and higher levels of suggestibility.Low IQs reduced the ability of source monitoring and led to less resistant responses to misleading questions. IQ affected resistant responses both at the first and second suggestive interview, reducing both source monitoring capabilities and the ability to manage social pressure. Age may impact the ability to provide resistant responses but only in the first suggestive interview (Yield 1), which depends more on the maturity of cognitive processes involved in interrogative suggestibility.

The Role of Coping Strategies in Children’s Repeated Suggestive Interviews

“…Normally, high immediate recall performs a protective function with respect to giving in to leading questions because it allows for greater source monitoring [3,5,9,39,40]. The use of the avoidance strategy significantly reduced the protective effect of even immediate recall, to the point of making it ineffective on yield levels in some cases.…”