Repeatedly Thinking about a Non-event: Source Misattributions among Preschoolers

Ceci, Stephen J.; Huffman, Mary Lyndia Crotteau; Smith, Elliott; Loftus, Elizabeth F.

doi:10.1006/ccog.1994.1022

Cited by 318 publications

(201 citation statements)

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“…First, as mentioned, several false event studies began with the interviewer explicitly telling children that the events occurred, for instance, by saying that their parents indicated the events took place, by telling children to imagine the events occurring, and/or by telling children that their friends already confirmed the events' occurrence (Bruck et al, 2002;Ceci, Huffman, et al, 1994). Such highly biased statements and interviewer pressure can lead to false reports even in a single interview (e.g., Garven, Wood, Malpass, & Shaw, 1998;Quas et al, 1999;Thompson, Clarke-Stewart, & Lepore, 1997).…”

Section: Repeated Interviews and Children's Memory And Suggestibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Theoretically, the repeated interviews increase the familiarity of false events. Because familiarity is often taken as evidence that an event occurred, children may confuse the source of their knowledge about false events as being due to actual experience (Ceci, Huffman, et al, 1994), a pattern consistent with source-monitoring perspectives concerning memory and suggestibility (Lindsay et al, 1991;Poole & Lindsay, 1995;Roberts & Blades, 2000). Also, according to fuzzy trace theory (Brainerd & Reyna, 1990;Reyna & Brainerd, 1995), compared with gist memory (i.e., memory for overall event meaning), verbatim memory (i.e., memory for surface features of the event) contains more details, fades more quickly, and is relied on relatively more by younger than older children.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on young children's event memory and false reports.

Quas

Malloy

Melinder

et al. 2007

Developmental Psychology

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The present study investigated developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on children's memory and suggestibility. Three-and 5-year-olds were singly or repeatedly interviewed about a play event by a highly biased or control interviewer. Children interviewed once by the biased interviewer after a long delay made the most errors. Children interviewed repeatedly, regardless of interviewer bias, were more accurate and less likely to falsely claim that they played with a man. In free recall, among children questioned once after a long delay by the biased interviewer, 5-year-olds were more likely than were 3-year-olds to claim falsely that they played with a man. However, in response to direct questions, 3-year-olds were more easily manipulated into implying that they played with him. Findings suggest that interviewer bias is particularly problematic when children's memory has weakened. In contrast, repeated interviews that occur a short time after a to-be-remembered event do not necessarily increase children's errors, even when interviews include misleading questions and interviewer bias. Implications for developmental differences in memory and suggestibility are discussed. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptAlthough it is well accepted that memories are not exact replicas of prior experiences but instead are reconstructions (Loftus, 1979), the nature of these reconstructions and the effects of developmental and contextual influences on them remain debated. One noteworthy debate has focused on the effects of repeated interviews on children's memory and suggestibility. In particular, concerns have been raised that the more often a child is interviewed, the more often misinformation might be presented-intentionally or inadvertently-leading to increased inaccuracy over time. Moreover, repeated demands for a child to retrieve information from memory may increase confabulations due to social pressure. Despite these concerns, studies of children's memory for experienced events generally suggest that repeated interviews can improve performance by facilitating recall and reducing forgetting (e.g., Howe, Courage, & Bryant-Brown, 1993;Peterson, 1999). Yet, in a second line of research, specifically when children are suggestively questioned about false events, adverse effects of repeated interviews appear to emerge (e.g., Bruck, Ceci, & Hembrooke, 2002;Leichtman & Ceci, 1995).A simple explanation for the different patterns of results is that repeated interviews benefit memory when the to-be-remembered event is true and distort memory when the to-beremembered event is false. However, a number of other factors likely contribute to the evident reduction in accuracy when children are repeatedly interviewed about fictitious events, making the simple explanation premature. For instance, studies concerning children's false event reports following repeated interviews often began with an interviewer explicitly stating that the false events occurred...

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Section: Repeated Interviews and Children's Memory And Suggestibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on young children's event memory and false reports.

Quas

Malloy

Melinder

et al. 2007

Developmental Psychology

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“…Ceci (Ceci et al 1994) conducted an experiment very similar to the one described above, investigating the impact of neutral but repetitive questioning by repeatedly asking children whether or not they had experienced four specific events (again, two false and two true events). The experiment not only successfully demonstrated that children would, in a final interview, assent to having experienced 34% of the fictitious events, but there was a side-effect again.…”

Section: Suggestibility Defies Definition and Merges With The Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…27% of the children assenting to false events, persistently clung to their assent after being de-briefed, and could not even be dissuaded by their parents. As a result of this unexpected outcome, Ceci et al (1994) claimed they had, for the first time, managed to show that it was possible to implant false memories into children. The study sparked huge public and media interest, and formed the centre of a heated international debate.…”

Section: Suggestibility Defies Definition and Merges With The Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the transdisciplinary trajectory of suggestibility

Motzkau

2009

Subjectivity

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Traditionally considered a deficiency in will power and rationality, suggestibility has proven a troublesome concept for psychology. It was forgotten, rediscovered, denounced, undermined experimentation and recently became the ambiguous issue at the centre of concern about child witness' credibility in sexual abuse cases. This paper traces the history of suggestibility to show how it raises the 'paradox of the psychosocial'. Drawing on the work of Deleuze and Stengers, and on interviews with legal practitioners, this paper demonstrates how suggestibility carries this paradox into theory, research and legal practice. It thereby opens up a transdisciplinary perspective, allowing for questions of power and knowledge to be asked as performative questions. In the spirit of a process centred ontology for psychology, Iargue that suggestibility constitutes a 'rhythm of problematisation', a folding, offering a subversive insight into dynamics of subjectification and application, and offering new perspectives towards issues of children's credibility and protection.

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“…Their study also provided some of the first evidence that children may incorporate misleading information into their free-recall accounts of an event even when they are questioned appropriately in a subsequent interview. Gross et al concluded that unless all interviews are free of misleading information, children may incorporate incorrect information into their subsequent accounts of the same event (see also Ceci, Huffman, Smith, & Loftus, 1994).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: the Effect of Truncated Testimony on Juror Decision‐making

Anderson

Gross

Sonne

et al. 2016

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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Many countries around the world have modified their legislation to allow child complainants of abuse to present their evidence-in-chief via pre-recorded videotape, or through closedcircuit-television (CCTV), rather than through live testimony, which has been shown to be stressful for children. With this modification, many countries also allow for childrens' videotaped evidence to be truncated for relevance or admissibility purposes. In the two experiments, we examined whether truncating testimony influenced how mock jurors rated the credibility of a 6-year-old child complainant when her testimony contained the primary core allegation only, or when the testimony was presented with either one or two additionalbut less plausible-allegations. We also examined how mock jurors rated the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Contrary to what we predicted, we found that participants believed the child's core allegation, regardless of whether or not it was presented with additional less plausible allegations. Moreover, jurors who read the transcripts containing multiple allegations of abuse were more likely to find the defendant guilty of the core allegation than were jurors who read the core allegation only. These findings suggest that the truncation of testimony may affect the outcome of a trial; however, more research is needed on the effects of truncated testimony on juror decision-making as we continue to try to make the criminal justice system as fair as possible for all of those involved.iii

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Repeatedly Thinking about a Non-event: Source Misattributions among Preschoolers

Cited by 318 publications

References 0 publications

Developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on young children's event memory and false reports.

Developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on young children's event memory and false reports.

Exploring the transdisciplinary trajectory of suggestibility

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: the Effect of Truncated Testimony on Juror Decision‐making

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