Abstract
Research shows that closing the eyes during retrieval can help both adults and children to remember more about witnessed events. In this study, we investigated whether the eye-closure effect in children is explained by general cognitive load, modality-specific interference, or a combination. 120 children (60 female) aged between 8 and 11 years viewed a 5-min clip depicting a theft and were questioned about the event. During the cued-recall interview, children either viewed a blank screen (blank-screen condition), kept their eyes closed (eye-closure condition), were exposed to visual stimuli (visual-distraction condition), or were exposed to auditory stimuli (auditory-distraction condition). Children in the blank-screen and eye-closure conditions provided significantly more correct and fewer incorrect responses about visual details than children in the visual- and auditory-distraction conditions. No advantage was found for auditory details. These results support neither a pure cognitive-load explanation (in which the effect is expected to be observed for recall of both visual and auditory details), nor a pure modality-specific account (in which recall of visual details should only be disrupted by visual distractions). Practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Highlights
One critical point in criminal investigation, especially in the early stages, is gathering evidence through questioning the witness/victim
We found that eye-closure during recall substantially increased correct responses, and substantially decreased errors, for recall of visual information about the witnessed event, as compared to conditions in which children were exposed to visual and auditory distractions during the interview
We found a general effect of sensory distractions on recall of visual details, but we did not find a general effect on recall of auditory details
Summary
One critical point in criminal investigation, especially in the early stages, is gathering evidence through questioning the witness/victim. 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). These protocols generally help the child to remember more accurately, but there is evidence of a small increase on the number of errors (see, for example, Memon et al, 1997 for a meta analysis on the Cognitive Interview)
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