Children's Eyewitness Suggestibility Research Articles

A temporal discriminability account of children's eyewitness suggestibility

Children's suggestibility is typically measured using a three-stage 'event-misinformation-test' procedure. We examined whether suggestibility is influenced by the time delays imposed between these stages, and in particular whether the temporal discriminability of sources (event and misinformation) predicts performance. In a novel approach, the degree of source discriminability was calculated as the relative magnitude of two intervals (the ratio of event-misinformation and misinformation-test intervals), based on an adaptation of existing 'ratio-rule' accounts of memory. Five-year-olds (n =150) watched an event, and were exposed to misinformation, before memory for source was tested. The absolute event-test delay (12 versus 24 days) and the 'ratio' of event-misinformation/misinformation-test intervals (11:1, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3 and 1:11) were manipulated across participants. The temporal discriminability of sources, measured by the ratio, was indeed a strong predictor of suggestibility. Most importantly, if the ratio was constant (e.g. 18/6 versus 9/3 days), performance was remarkably similar despite variations in absolute delay (e.g. 24 versus 12 days). This intriguing finding not only extends the ratio-rule of distinctiveness to misinformation paradigms, but also serves to illustrate a new empirical means of differentiating between explanations of suggestibility based on interference between sources and disintegration of source information over time.

Automatic and intentional processes in children's eyewitness suggestibility

This research investigated the contribution of automatic and intentional memory processes to suggestible responses in 5- and 9-year-old children. Children were presented with an event followed the next day by a postevent summary containing misleading suggestions that were either read to participants or were self-generated in response to semantic and perceptual cues. All children were then given both a standard test and a modified forced-choice recognition memory test under inclusion and exclusion instruction conditions. On the standard test, both age groups were suggestible with the magnitude of these effects greater in the inclusion condition. Children performed more poorly on misled-generated items compared to misled-read items in the inclusion condition, but the opposite was the case under exclusion instructions. On the modified test, only 5-year-old children were found to be suggestible. Process dissociation analyses revealed that both automatic and intentional processes influenced misinformation acceptance, but that suggestibility was predominantly due to automatic processes.

Children's Eyewitness Suggestibility: Memory Trace Strength Revisited

This study investigated memory trace strength and the eyewitness suggestibility effect in 5- and 9-year-old children. Children were first presented with a picture story and then, on the next day, were read a post-event summary containing a number of misleading details. Trace strength was manipulated by repetition of the original and/or the post-event details. Children were given either a standard or a modified recognition test on their memories for picture story details one day after presentation of misleading suggestions. Both age groups were found to be suggestible in each recognition test condition. On the modified test, suggestibility was greatest when the post-event trace was strong and the original trace was weak. Theoretical accounts of the suggestibility effect in children and of memory trace strength are discussed in the light of these findings.