Reducing Suggestibility in Child Witness Interviews

This study set out to test the prediction that a Cognitive Interview may increase resistance to subsequent misleading suggestions in child witness interviews. The misleading information was presented in the form of questions both prior to, and after, a cognitive or structured interview to 8- and 9-year-old witnesses to a video-taped event. Use of the cognitive interview resulted in more correct responses to post-interview questions than did the structured interview even though there was not quite a significant effect of the cognitive interview on information recalled during the actual interview. On the basis of their interview performance, the children were classified as ‘intruders’ or ‘non-intruders’ (i.e. those children who intruded pre-interview misleading items into the subsequent interview and those who did not). The ‘non-intruders’ made significantly fewer errors on the post-interview questions, indicating lower vulnerability to misleading information. Moreover, those children who selected the ‘don't know’ option made fewer errors in the interview and were more accurate in their responses. Theoretical and practical implications of the data are discussed in the context of group differences in vulnerability to suggestion and techniques for increasing resistance to suggestion.     

A state of high anxiety: how non‐supportive interviewers can increase the suggestibility of child witnesses

The present study examined the effects of state and trait anxiety on 8–11 years old children's susceptibility to misleading post‐event information. Participants' state and trait anxiety were measured, after which they watched an extract from a children's movie. They were then individually interviewed using either a supportive or a non‐supportive style. During the interviews, the children were asked 14 questions about the movie, seven of which were control and seven contained misleading information. After the interview, their state anxiety was measured again. Results showed that participants interviewed in a non‐supportive style were more likely to provide incorrect answers to misleading questions. Furthermore, participants who scored highly on both trait and post‐interview state anxiety measures more often responded incorrectly to misleading questions. Also, pre‐to post‐interview changes in state anxiety were correlated with more incorrect responses to misleading questions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of question type on resistance to misinformation about present and absent details

The typical misinformation effect shows that accuracy is lower for details about which people received misleading compared to non-misleading (control) information. In two experiments, we examined the misinformation effect for non-witnessed details (i.e., absent). Three question types introduced control, misleading, and absent details (closed, closed-detailed, and open questions) about a mock burglary video. On this misinformation test, participants' reports of absent details were less accurate than control details only when they were introduced using open questions. Misinformation effects in a subsequent recognition test were present for misleading details in both experiments, but for absent details only in Experiment 2. Experiment 2 also revealed that participants who avoided answering open questions containing misleading and absent details had more accurate memories for these details on the subsequent recognition test than participants who answered these questions. In both experiments, confidence was lowest for absent details. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

The Effects of Adult Suggestion and Child Consistency on Young Children's Reports1

The purpose of the present study was to contrast the effects of children's response consistency and adult leading questions in a structured memory interview. Children (N = 70) who viewed a 2‐min video clip were asked 3 questions (leading, misleading, and neutral) related to the video. Children's responses (assent vs. deny) were predicted by the type of question asked by the adult (neutral, leading, and misleading), but not by the previous response given by the child or the child's age in months. Specifically, children assented the least often to misleading questions. Accuracy was predicted by both question type and in the last question–answer pair, children's previous response accuracy. These findings are discussed with relation to interview dynamics.     

The effect of a prior cognitive interview on children's acceptance of misinformation

This research examined whether a Cognitive interview facilitates correct recall in children aged 4 to 5 and 9 to 10 years, and whether a Cognitive interview given before post‐event misinformation reduces children's reporting of suggestions on subsequent memory tests. Children were presented with an event followed the next day by a Cognitive or a Memorandum interview. Children were then read a post‐event summary containing misleading suggestions. The next day all children were given both standard test and modified forced‐choice cued‐recall tests. The free recall phase of the Cognitive interview elicited the greatest number of correct details. Age differences were found such that 9‐ to 10‐year‐old children's reports were more accurate and more complete than those of the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. More correct person, action and object details were reported in a Cognitive interview. Misinformation effects were found in both age groups on the standard test whereas on the modified test such an effect was only found in the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. Children's reporting of suggestions was unaffected by prior interview. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of the timing of postevent information on preschoolers' memories of an event

Few researchers have investigated whether the timing of postevent information affects the accuracy of children's reports of events they have experienced. In this study, four‐year‐olds dressed up in costumes and had their photographs taken. An unfamiliar adult spoke to the children about the event either a day (immediate condition) or a month (delayed condition) later, providing both accurate and misleading information about the staged event. When questioned five weeks after the event, children in a control group who had not received the review were more inaccurate answering focused questions than children who had been reminded of the event. A review a while after the event but shortly before the interview increased the amount of details recalled and this was not at the expense of accuracy. Misinformation was seldom reported spontaneously, although children in all groups acquiesced to leading questions in line with the misleading suggestions. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Confidence judgments in event recall: developmental progression in the impact of question format

Two studies were conducted to examine developmental progression in children's and adults' ability to adequately monitor their own attempts to recall event details as well as the dependence of such metamemorial competencies on question formats. Eight and 10-year-old children as well as adults (Study 1, N=116; Study 2, N=60) rated their confidence when responding to specific questions about an observed event. Confirming most recent results, children and adults gave higher confidence ratings after correct than after incorrect answers. This ability, however, was limited to an unbiased question format. When being asked misleading questions, children's ability to differentiate was undermined, as reflected in equally high confidence judgments after correct and incorrect answers, even when the interview contained a mix of misleading and unbiased questions. When the interviewer "bombarded" the children with an uninterrupted series of misleading questions, children's difficulties appeared to be even more pronounced. These findings highlight the importance of the way in which questions are asked, and point to age-related progression in the relative impact of questioning style.     

The influence of suggestions on children's reports of a unique experience versus an instance of a repeated experience

In Experiment 1 we compared the influence of misleading suggestions on 4‐, 6‐, and 8‐year‐olds' reports of details of an instance of a repeated experience versus a unique experience. For children who experienced the event repeatedly, some components remained constant across instances (fixed) whereas others varied (variable). Relative to children who had experienced the event only once, those who had experienced it repeatedly were less affected by suggestions regarding fixed details and more affected by suggestions regarding variable details. In Experiment 2 a misinformation effect was observed in responses to questions about variable details but not in responses to questions about fixed details. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of repeated experience on children's suggestibility across two question types

There is a discrepancy in the literature regarding the effect of repeated experience on children's suggestibility. Some researchers have concluded that repeated experience increases children's suggestibility for variable details whereas others have reported no detrimental effect. This study demonstrated that the type of question used to test memory (cued‐recall versus yes/no questions) could account for the different reported conclusions. Children aged 5–6 years took part in an event either once or four times. Three or 21 days later, they were given a suggestive interview about the single/final occurrence of the event during which half of the event details were inaccurately described. When later asked yes/no questions, the children with repeated experience agreed with more of the suggestions than did those in the single‐experience condition, especially at the longer delay. In relation to cued‐recall questions, however, experience did not mediate the number of times that false suggestions from the biasing interview were reported. This latter finding was revealed irrespective of the retention interval. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Misled subjects may know more than their performance implies

Many studies have demonstrated that subjects exposed to misleading postevent information are likely to report the misinformation with confidence on subsequent tests of memory for the event. The purpose of the present studies was to determine whether subjects exposed to misleading postevent information come to believe they remember seeing the misinformation at the original event. A second question addressed by the present studies is whether exposure to misinformation reduces subjects' ability to remember the source of items they witnessed at the original event. In two experiments, subjects viewed a slide sequence depicting an event, were subsequently exposed to misleading information or neutral information about selected aspects of the event, and were later tested on their memory for the source of original and misleading details. The results showed that exposure to misinformation did not lead subjects to believe they remembered seeing the misinformation, nor did it reduce subjects' ability to accurately identify the source of originally seen details. The same pattern of results was obtained whether subjects were tested immediately (Experiment 1) or after a 1-day delay (Experiment 2). Collectively, the results suggest that subjects may report misinformation even if they know they do not remember seeing it.     

Correcting socially introduced false memories: The effect of re-study

This study examined whether participants could utilize re-study and perceptual elaboration to correct erroneous suggestions from their partner in the social contagion of memory paradigm. Participants studied household scenes and then collaboratively recalled the scenes with a confederate who interjected erroneous items. Before completing subsequent individual recall and recognition tests, participants were allowed to re-study the original items and/or to generate perceptual details of the items. Across two experiments, participants who re-studied the original material were less likely to incorporate the confederate's misleading suggestions. Re-study reduced false recall and recognition and increased veridical recall and recognition (Experiment 1) and the effect was especially pronounced with longer re-study episodes (Experiment 2). Items generated on the perceptual elaboration test offered no corrective benefit above and beyond the effects of re-study. These data demonstrate that participants can rely on self-initiated correction processes engaged during re-study to reduce socially suggested false memories.     

Repetition and Reconfiguration: Demand‐Based Confabulation in Initial Eyewitness Memory

Repeated recall, as a result of repeated questioning, is typical of situations involving eyewitness evidence. The present study addressed questions of eyewitness performance with reference to repeated questioning in an initial interview, in a format based on actual police procedures. This experiment focused on eyewitness accuracy, eyewitness confidence, and the addition of false details to eyewitness accounts. Ninety‐two adult respondents were asked to recall all the information they could from a single viewing of a scene depicting an assailant aiming a handgun at a victim. This initial question was followed by three additional questions, in which respondents were asked to report any additional details they could recall. On average, respondents provided several times as many correct as false details to the initial question. However, performance deteriorated significantly to the three subsequent questions; on average, across the three subsequent questions, witnesses recalled nearly as much false as accurate information. Witness confidence was positively related to amount of accurate information recalled. However, confidence was also positively related to the number of instances of erroneous recall. These results indicate that reconfigurative dynamics begin to operate, producing confabulated responses in response to questioning demands, as early as the initial interview. This work may also help to clarify the critical relationship between accuracy and confidence in eyewitness reportage, at least within the framework reflected by the present research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Accuracy Motivation on Children's and Adults' Event Recall,Suggestibility, and Their Answers to Unanswerable Questions

This study investigated children's and adults' event recall accuracy and suggestibility effects when participants' accuracy motivation was manipulated. A total of 240 participants (6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds, and adults) were shown a video and later asked 4 types of questions: answerable questions, both open-ended and strongly misleading, and unanswerable questions, both open-ended and strongly misleading. Participants were either (a) rewarded with a token for every correct answer (high accuracy motivation, Free Report Plus Incentive condition), (b) explicitly given the option of answering with "don't know" when unsure (medium accuracy motivation, Free Report condition), or (c) asked to provide an answer to every question, even when they were not sure or had to guess or both (low accuracy motivation, Forced Report condition). The condition with the high accuracy motivation yielded the highest recall accuracy scores for answerable open-ended and misleading questions. For unanswerable questions, even the youngest age group was able to increase the number of appropriate "don't know" answers when highly motivated to be accurate, but a misleading question format undermined these abilities. The results highlight important interactions between social (accuracy motivation) and cognitive factors (metacognitive monitoring processes) in children's formal interviewing.     

The relationships between child and forensic interviewer behaviours and individual differences in interviews about a medical examination

This study examined the interviewing process between professional forensic interviewers and their “mock” child witness. Fifty-eight preschool children participated in a medical examination, and were later interviewed by an experienced forensic interviewer (n = 15) about this event. Interviews were coded with mutually exclusive and exhaustive coding schemes that captured interviewers and child behaviours in a temporally organized manner. To evaluate the relationship between interviewers' and children's individual differences measured prior to the interview and the interview outcomes (i.e., questions asked, child interview behaviour), all child participants were tested with relevant cognitive and behavioural measures, and all adult interviewers were tested with personality measures. Results showed that leading questions were more often followed by simple assents and denial than expected. Interviewers did not remain consistent from question to subsequent question, but children's response type was predictable from response to subsequent response. Children's and adults' individual differences measured prior to the interview predicted some of the adults' interviewing behaviours and some of children's own response behaviours during the interview. Mediation modelling evinced that more self-controlled interviewers posed more recommended questions and elicited more assents with details from the children. We discuss the results in relation to established views of recommended interview practice and to theories of suggestibility.     

How to answer an unanswerable question? Factors affecting correct “don't know” responding in memory tasks

When reporting from memory, people may often be asked unanswerable questions—questions for which the correct answer has never been encoded. These unanswerable questions should be met with an “I don't know” response. Previous research has shown that a manipulation commonly used to enhance memory at retrieval—context reinstatement—reduces appropriate “do not know” responding to unanswerable questions. Here we investigated whether this reduction is due to increased belief that a given question is answerable, or solely to increased confidence in specific responses for questions already believed to be answerable. In two experiments, we show that context reinstatement reduces “do not know” responding even when a “do not remember” option is available to express beliefs that particular questions are answerable. These results indicate that improved access to contextual information at retrieval creates an erroneous belief that unanswerable questions are in fact answerable.     

Sorting the Liars from the Truth Tellers: The Benefits of Asking Unanticipated Questions on Lie Detection

We examined the effect of asking unanticipated interview questions on lie detection. We set up a room in which truth tellers (N = 40) performed five tasks. Liars (N = 40) observed the activity room through a window and were asked to generate a story in which they claim to have performed five tasks. The interview schedule included four thematically related pairs of questions. The first question of each pairing was easy for interviewees to anticipate, as it reflected how events are typically recalled. However, the second included a perspective shift (temporal or spatial), which made the question harder to anticipate. We also measured cognitive load via performance on an object sorting secondary task that interviewees undertook during interview. Compared with truth tellers, liars' verbal responses showed a greater decline in details across three out of four question pairs. Liars also sorted significantly fewer objects per minute on the secondary task. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intoxicated eyewitnesses: The effect of a fully balanced placebo design on event memory and metacognitive control

Few studies have examined the impact of alcohol on metacognition for witnessed events. We used a 2 × 2 balanced placebo design, where mock witnesses expected and drank alcohol, did not expect but drank alcohol, did not expect nor drank alcohol, or expected but did not drink alcohol. Participants watched a mock crime in a bar‐lab, followed by free recall and a cued‐recall test with or without the option to reply “don't know” (DK). Intoxicated mock witnesses' free recall was less complete but not less accurate. During cued‐recall, alcohol led to lower accuracy, and reverse placebo participants gave more erroneous and fewer correct responses. Permitting and clarifying DK responses was associated with fewer errors and more correct responses for sober individuals; and intoxicated witnesses were less likely to opt out of erroneous responding to unanswerable questions. Our findings highlight the practical and theoretical importance of examining pharmacological effects of alcohol and expectancies in real‐life settings.     

Witnesses' failure to detect covert manipulations in their written statements

Law enforcement agencies and legal professionals often have to rely on witness statements. Undetected errors in witnesses' statements, however, could impede the accurate reconstruction of a crime and lead to the incrimination of innocent suspects. Here, we examined whether witnesses can detect manipulations in their written statements. We expect that writing a statement could provide a good means for discrimination between what is truly recalled and what is an error. This is because writing allows to monitor and control the previously produced information. In 3 experiments, participants watched a mock crime film and subsequently provided a written statement of what they had witnessed. Following a delay of several minutes (Experiment 1), 48 hr (Experiment 2), or 1 month (Experiment 3), participants were exposed to and interviewed about their testimony. Unknown to them, they were confronted with statements, which included 4 secretly manipulated details. Participants' missed a substantial number of manipulations in their written statements. Importantly, the detection rates varied as a function of delay (Experiments 1 and 2: 74–89%; Experiment 3: 36%–52%). Detection rates also varied as a function of the type of details that were manipulated. Our findings indicate that writing a statement comes with limited benefits in witnesses' ability to detect errors in their statements.     

REPEATED EXPOSURE TO SUGGESTION AND THE CREATION OF FALSE MEMORIES

Abstract— The purpose of the present study was to extend research on repetition and illusory truth to the domain of eyewitness suggestibility. Specifically, we assessed whether repeated exposure to suggestion, relative to a single exposure, facilitates the creation of false memory for suggested events. After viewing a video of a burglary, subjects were asked questions containing misleading suggestions, some of which were repeated. Their memory for the source of the suggestions was tested. The results show that following repeated (relative to a single) exposure to suggestion, subjects were more likely to (a) claim with high confidence that they remembered the suggested events from the video (Experiment 1) and (b) claim that they consciously recollected witnessing the suggested events (Experiment 2). The effects of repeated exposure were highly reliable and were observed over retention intervals as long as I week.