Secrecy and suggestibility: are children's memories for secrets less suggestible than other memories?

Abstract

Adult secrecy research has found a memory-enhancing effect for information kept secret as the secret is mentally rehearsed each time the adult is required to prevent it being reported (e.g. Lane & Wegner, 1994). The present study examined possible memory-enhancing effects of children keeping information secret. Two hundred and thirty two five to eight year olds took part in a puppet-making task. During the task the puppet-maker sprayed glitter onto the puppets. Half the children were told to keep a secret (that the spray had been taken from Disneyland) and the other half (the control group) were merely told the spray was from Disneyland. One week later the children were interviewed either by the puppet-maker (the secret-giver) or by the puppet-maker's friend (the secret-novice). The five to six year olds showed no effect of the secret condition, whereas the seven to eight year olds made significantly less errors in their free recall in the secret condition compared to the control condition. There was no effect of the secret condition on children's suggestibility to leading questions. However, both age groups were significantly more suggestible when interviewed by the secret-giver. Finally, both age groups showed a recall deficit in the secret condition.

The role of repeated interviewing in children's responses to cross‐examination‐style questioning

“…For example, getting a photo taken may not have been perceived as salient, offering a potential explanation for lower rates of recall (Howe, 1997; Howe, Courage, & Peterson, 1994; Peterson, 1999; Peterson et al ., 2001). Furthermore, children were told not to tell anyone about being spun around by the police officer, which may also have resulted in fewer children disclosing this event in subsequent interviews (Bussey, Lee, & Grimbeek, 1993; Wilson, Powell, Raju, & Romeo, 2004). Alternatively, it may be that children's rejection of the interviewer's questions about false events was due to their using memorability‐based strategies.…”

Μυστικά Και Εκμυστηρεύσεις: Πώς Τα Μικρά Παιδιά Χειρίζονται Τα Μυστικά

“…Wilson, Powell, Raju, & Romeo, 2004. Για παράδειγμα, στην έρευνα της Peskin (Peskin & Ardino, 2003) ζητήθηκε από τα παιδιά να κρατήσουν μυστικό ότι στο ψυγείο υπήρχε μία τούρτα γενεθλίων, ενώ σε άλλη έρευνα (Wilson et al, 2004) ζητήθηκε από τα παιδιά να κρατήσουν μυστικό ότι ο ερευνητής είχε κλέψει ένα πολύχρωμο σπρέι από την Disneyland.…”

“…Μάλιστα, η επιρροή των παιδιών από νύξεις θεωρείται μία από τις σημαντικές παραμέτρους που καθορίζουν την απόδοση παιδιών σε συνεντεύξεις, μαζί με την μνημονική ικανότητα ανάκλησης πληροφοριών και την ικανότητα ελέγχου της ορθότητας μιας πληροφορίας (Koriat & Goldsmith, 1996). Σύμφωνα με τους ερευνητές όταν δίνεται μια νύξη σχετικά με το χειρισμό μιας κατάστασης τα μικρά παιδιά μοιάζει να παραβλέπουν τη δική τους κρίση και να υπακούν στην «αυθεντία του ενήλικα» (Wilson et al, 2004), όπως μοιάζει να συνέβη και στην παρούσα έρευνα.…”

The effect of interviewing techniques on young children's responses to questions

“…This reduction in suggestibility could be diminished by the introduction of peer pressure in the assent to misleading questions (Principe & Ceci 2002). Social pressure was found to have no effect on children's suggestibility to leading questions in a condition where children were advised to keep some information secret unless the interview was performed by the person who had suggested the secret be kept (Wilson et al . 2004).…”