The effects of narrative practice on children's testimony and disclosure of secrets

Abstract

SummaryThe present study explored the effects of different types of narrative practices on the accuracy and abundance of information elicited from children and the disclosure of secrets. Seventy‐one children ages 3–6 years experienced a scripted encounter with a photographer; then they were interviewed about the event after participating in one of four different narrative practices. The narrative practices comprised either a discussion of topics drawing from episodic memory or topics drawing from semantic memory. Further, either open‐ended prompts were used during the practice narratives or directive questions were used. The episodic topics were related to past experienced events, whereas the semantic topics consisted of general knowledge about what they liked to do. The results showed that children who were trained to respond to open‐ended prompts early in the interview responded more informatively later, but the specificity of the topics had no effect on their accuracy and informativeness. Neither the topics nor types of questions had effects on the results of disclosure.