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

Abstract

The implications of these findings are relevant in all contexts where an adult questions a child. It has been demonstrated that interviewing techniques can affect responses from children and that it is therefore imperative that interviewers are aware of, understand and control their influence in order to elicit complete, accurate and reliable information from the child.

Children with Reading Disabilities and Outdoor Education

“…When children are told to choose either one side or another, or point at one figure instead of some others, they are able to do so without reflecting upon their choices. This type of interviewing is not as reliable as open interviews with open-ended questions (Aldridge & Wood, 1998;Krahenbuhl & Blades, 2006;Lamb & Brown, 2006). Nevertheless, this method has benefits with the possibilities to ask many questions in a relatively short time (Patton, 2002, chapter 7), and to explain pattern in answers, this method is suitable.…”

When Do Children Exhibit a “Yes” Bias?

“…First, children might feel social pressures that they have to provide an answer when questioned by adults (Cassel, Roebers, & Bjorklund, 1996;Moston, 1990) because they might believe that (a) adults prefer a ''yes'' response (Brady, Poole, Warren, & Jones, 1999), (b) it would be in agreement with adults (Peterson & Biggs, 1997), and (c) it would display compliance (Peterson & Biggs, 1997) with the interviewer's intentions, especially when he or she is not a family member (Krähenbü hl & Blades, 2006;Zajac, Gross, & Hayne, 2003;. In addition to these social pressures, children might be likely to affirm interviewers' intentions because yes-no questions are highly suggestive (Ceci & Bruck, 1993;Peterson et al, 1999).…”

Eye-closure increases children's memory accuracy for visual material

“…Closing the eyes may be a way to reduce interference of external stimulation and reduce rememberers' cognitive load, both increasing the capability of the witness to focus on the memorial image and decreasing the burden of monitoring the environment for social cues (Bond and Titus, 1983). Given that children are particularly affected by the social and environmental components of an interview (e.g., characteristics of the interviewer, social cues and types of requests; see Krähenbühl and Blades, 2006; Quas et al, 2007), a reduction in cognitive load might explain the effect of eye-closure in increasing children's accuracy. In the present study, children's performance was affected by any form of distraction, probably because they experienced difficulties on focusing and sustaining attention over time (Ruff and Rothbart, 1996; Dowsett and Livesey, 2000; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005).…”

“…In fact, children tend to report less information compared to adults, despite being generally accurate (see Goodman and Melinder, 2007, for a review), and may experience difficulties in focusing their attention for prolonged times. They are also prone to be influenced by situational factors such as the characteristics of the interviewer (e.g., age and status) and of the interview itself (e.g., social cues and types of requests; see Krähenbühl and Blades, 2006; Quas et al, 2007). In order to overcome these issues, researchers have developed or adapted a number of interview protocols with the purpose to help professionals gather accurate information from a child witness (e.g., Cognitive Interview: Fisher and Geiselman, 1992; Stepwise Interview: Yuille et al, 1993).…”