Children's Suggestibility Research Articles

Children, Sexual Abuse and Suggestibility: What Laypeople Think They Know and What the Literature Tells Us

This article summarizes the extensive research literature on laypeople's and jurors' beliefs about children's memory, suggestibility and responses to child sexual abuse. In particular, it discusses the extent and types of misconceptions held by laypeople/jurors, as well as the effects of age, education and gender on those misconceptions. The results from an analysis of mock jury studies where different types of expert testimony were presented are then considered in order to understand the types of expert testimony that would be admissible in courts in Australia, with a particular focus on the Uniform Evidence Act. As a result of this analysis, particular reform options are discussed and recommended in order to counter juror misconceptions in child sexual abuse trials.

What the stories children tell can tell about their memory: Narrative skill and young children's suggestibility.

The authors examined the relation between children's narrative ability, which has been identified as an important contributor to memory development, and suggestibility. Across 2 studies, a total of 112 preschool-aged children witnessed a staged event and were subsequently questioned suggestively. Results from Study 1 indicated that children's ability to provide a high-quality narrative of the event was related to resistance to suggestive questions, and narrative ability appeared to supersede age as a predictor of such resistance. In Study 2, children's general language and narrative abilities were measured in addition to their ability to produce a high-quality narrative about the target event. These results replicated Study 1's findings that children's ability to produce a high-quality narrative of a previously experienced event predicted resistance to suggestion. However, the quality of children's autobiographical memory narratives predicted shifting from denial to assent. Findings are considered in light of narrative's role in memory development and underlying mechanisms that may explain children's suggestibility.

‘Robust and Raring to Go?’– Judges' Perceptions of Child Witnesses

This article explores judicial perceptions of child witnesses. It considers the impact of recent legislation in England and Wales as well as in Scotland which classified all child witnesses as vulnerable and introduced a series of special measures to facilitate children's evidence. The article reports the findings of an empirical research study conducted with the judiciary in Scotland which suggests that judicial perceptions of child witnesses extend across a complex spectrum where a child may be viewed as vulnerable but is also likely to be seen as suggestible, reliable or resilient. The article advances two propositions. First, that the statutory conceptualization of children as invariably vulnerable has not displaced established beliefs concerning children's suggestibility and therefore has made little difference to perceptions of their ability to produce reliable testimony. Second, that focusing on children's potential for resilience rather than their vulnerability may prove a more productive conceptualization of children, one which could better support their capability as witnesses.

The stability and generalizability of young children's suggestibility over a 44-month interval

We discuss a 44-month longitudinal study of the stability of the two-factor Norwegian Book Suggestibility Scale for Children (BSSC; Melinder, Scullin, Gunnerød, & Nyborg, 2005) in a sample of 7-year-old children (M Time 2 age=94 months). Several measures of suggestibility were assessed: yielding to suggestive questions (Yield), shifting answers in response to negative feedback (Shift), the sum of Yield and Shift (Total Suggestibility), and suggestibility in response to open-ended and misleading direct and tag questions about an event experienced 44 months earlier. Results showed a moderate correlation for Total Suggestibility scores over time in spite of marked declines in Yield and Shift. Both Yield and Total Suggestibility were related to children's tendency to respond affirmatively to misleading tag questions about the past event. The two-factor model of suggestibility showed some weakening over time with a positive correlation developing between Yield and Shift.

Developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on young children's event memory and false reports.

The present study investigated developmental differences in the effects of repeated interviews and interviewer bias on children's memory and suggestibility. Three- and 5-year-olds were singly or repeatedly interviewed about a play event by a highly biased or control interviewer. Children interviewed once by the biased interviewer after a long delay made the most errors. Children interviewed repeatedly, regardless of interviewer bias, were more accurate and less likely to falsely claim that they played with a man. In free recall, among children questioned once after a long delay by the biased interviewer, 5-year-olds were more likely than were 3-year-olds to claim falsely that they played with a man. However, in response to direct questions, 3-year-olds were more easily manipulated into implying that they played with him. Findings suggest that interviewer bias is particularly problematic when children's memory has weakened. In contrast, repeated interviews that occur a short time after a to-be-remembered event do not necessarily increase children's errors, even when interviews include misleading questions and interviewer bias. Implications for developmental differences in memory and suggestibility are discussed.

Representational Constraints on Children's Suggestibility

In a multistage experiment, twelve 4- and 9-year-old children participated in a triad rating task. Their ratings were mapped with multidimensional scaling, from which euclidean distances were computed to operationalize semantic distance between items in target pairs. These children and age-mates then participated in an experiment that employed these target pairs in a story, which was followed by a misinformation manipulation. Analyses linked individual and developmental differences in suggestibility to children's representations of the target items. Semantic proximity was a strong predictor of differences in suggestibility: The closer a suggested distractor was to the original item's representation, the greater was the distractor's suggestive influence. The triad participants' semantic proximity subsequently served as the basis for correctly predicting memory performance in the larger group. Semantic proximity enabled a priori counterintuitive predictions of reverse age-related trends to be confirmed whenever the distance between representations of items in a target pair was greater for younger than for older children.

Unwarranted Assumptions about Children's Testimonial Accuracy

We examine eight unwarranted assumptions made by expert witnesses, forensic interviewers, and legal scholars about the reliability of children's eyewitness reports. The first four assumptions modify some central beliefs about the nature of suggestive interviews, age-related differences in resistance to suggestion, and thresholds necessary to produce tainted reports. The fifth unwarranted assumption involves the influence of both individual and interviewer factors in determining children's suggestibility. The sixth unwarranted assumption concerns the claim that suggested reports are detectable. The seventh unwarranted assumption concerns new findings about how children deny, disclose, and/or recant their abuse. Finally, we examine unwarranted statements about the value of science to the forensic arena. It is important not only for researchers but also expert witnesses and court-appointed psychologists to be aware of these unwarranted assumptions.

Children's perceptions on the implementation of methods for their postoperative pain alleviation: An interview study

The purpose of this study was to reveal the 8-12-year-old children's perceptions on the use of methods for pediatric postoperative pain alleviation by themselves, their parents and nurses. Face-to-face structured interviews were conducted with 59 subjects who had undergone surgical procedures in three provincial hospitals in Fujian Province, China in 2004. Content analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. According to the children's perceptions, they commonly used rest/sleeping, a physical method (positioning) and a strategy of emotional support (requiring presence of their parents); their parents frequently used helping with daily activities and all strategies of emotional support; the nurses mostly used a strategy of emotional support (comforting) and a physical method (positioning). Children's suggestions mainly concerned the application of non-pharmacological methods, especially presence of caregivers. In conclusion, pain-relieving methods were not sufficiently used although children suffered from intense postoperative pain, which calls for health-care providers' future attention.

Children's Eyewitness Memory: A Modern History and Contemporary Commentary

This article provides a modern historical overview of child eyewitness research, as well as an evaluative commentary on the field, with special emphasis on children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility in child sexual abuse cases. Four historical periods are reviewed: the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (to date). Examples of legal cases that inform scientific research are described, discussion of relevant laws is presented, and a review of selected studies is offered. It is concluded that although we have learned a great deal about children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility over the last few decades, simple answers are evasive and much more research is needed.

The impact of experienced versus non‐experienced suggestions on children's recall of repeated events

AbstractThree experiments were conducted to test the proposition that children's suggestibility about an occurrence of a repeated event is heightened when an interviewer suggests false details that were experienced in non‐target occurrences of the event as opposed to new details that never occurred. In each experiment, children participated in a repeated event during which specific items varied each time (e.g. the children always got a sticker but the theme of the sticker was different in each occurrence). Separate biasing and memory interviews were then conducted. In Experiment 1, the interviewer merely suggested that the false details might have occurred in the event. In the remaining experiments, the suggested details were clearly linked to the target occurrence with either a contextual or temporal cue. The potential moderating effect of the child's age (Experiment 1) and the retention interval (Experiments 1 and 2) were also examined. Consistent with the initial hypothesis, suggestions about experienced (non‐target) details were more likely to be repeated by the children compared to suggestions about non‐experienced details. In Experiments 2 and 3, experienced suggestions were also more likely to inhibit children's recall of the target occurrence. The relevance and generalizability of these findings to the legal setting are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Children's Garden Consultants: A New Model of Engaging Youth to Inform Garden Design and Programming

This paper discusses a unique garden and youth-focused event in which a group of 4-H youth engaged in a “children's garden consultants” program. Over a 3-day period, seven teenaged youth were given the opportunity to actively research children's garden design and educational programming, and then present recommendations to an adult audience of children's garden experts and youth development specialists. Surveys, observations, and discussions with youth, adults in attendance, and program organizers indicated the event was highly valuable and worth repeating. It provided a new learning opportunity for youth, and it also gave adults new perspectives on gardens. The youth's ideas for improving children's gardens and suggestions for future programming are presented as well.

Wailing Babies in Her Wake.

The scientific study of child witnesses has influenced both developmental science and jurisprudence concerning children. Focusing on the author's own studies, 4 categories of research are briefly reviewed: (a) children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility; (b) memory for traumatic events in childhood; (c) disclosure of child sexual abuse; and (d) experiences of child victim/witnesses within the legal system. Implications for psychology and for legal practice are discussed.

Individual differences in young children's suggestibility: Relations to event memory, language abilities, working memory, and executive functioning

In this paper, two empirical studies are presented in which an attempt was made to explain individual differences in two different aspects of 4-year-olds’ suggestibility, that is, their ability to resist false suggestions and memory impairments due to prior misinformation. As sources of individual differences cognitive skills along the information processing pathways were chosen: executive functioning (Study 1) and working memory (Study 2). Additionally, memory for the observed event and language proficiency were included in the studies. The results revealed that overall individual differences in language skills made a significant and consistent contribution to individual differences in the included measures of children's susceptibility to suggestions. Executive function and working memory skills were not directly related to children's tendency to yield false suggestions and their memory impairments in a recognition test after being misled. However, both executive function and working memory were related to children's language proficiency pointing to a possible indirect effect and underlining the importance of language competencies in early childhood.

Generalizability of a two-factor measure of young children's suggestibility in Norway and the USA

We discuss the development of the Book Suggestibility Scale for Children (BSSC), a two-factor suggestibility measure developed as an alternative to the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (VSSC; Scullin & Ceci, Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 843–856, 2001). In study 1, both the BSSC and the VSSC were administered to 60 American preschool children. Children responded affirmatively to inaccurate leading questions (Yield) and changed their answers in response to negative feedback from interviewers (Shift) in a similar manner on both scales. In study 2 we found that the BSSC was useful for studies of suggestibility in contexts other than America because 62 Norwegian preschool children responded to questions in a similar manner to an age-range and vocabulary matched group of 31 American children. Results support a two-factor model of suggestibility, although Yield appears to measure suggestibility across scales and situations more consistently than does Shift. American age-matched samples had significantly higher Shift and Yield 2 scores than the Norwegian sample.

Social influence and children's event recall and suggestibility

The present study sheds light on interactions between cognitive and social factors affecting children's memory performance and suggestibility in event recall tasks. We examined 251 children, aged 8, 9 and 10 years, and applied a well-known paradigm from social psychology, that is, the social influence of misleading questions was experimentally manipulated through the presence and answering behaviour of an adult confederate. Children's answers about the content of a previously watched film to misleading questions, their accurate statements in their subsequent free recall, as well as performance in a recognition test were assessed. The design also included two control conditions, one in which children answered misleading questions without an adult confederate, and a second one in which no misleading interview was administered but only free recall and recognition. The results document large recall and suggestibility differences between the conditions. Participants of the strong social influence condition answered more conformably to misleading questions and showed a larger effect of memory contagion in recognition. Moreover, there were strong age-related increases in the ability to rely on one's own recollection rather than parroting the confederate's answers. Strong social influence also differentially affected the occurrence of false statements in free recall and errors in the recognition test depending on the children's age.

Individual differences in children's recall and suggestibility: the effect of intelligence, temperament, and self‐perceptions

AbstractThis study explored the effect of intelligence, temperament, and self‐perceptions on children's recall and suggestibility. The relationship between recall and suggestibility was also examined. A total of 134 children, 63 preschoolers and 71 second graders, were exposed to a staged event involving an argument between two adults in their classrooms and were interviewed approximately 1 week later. Children were then administered verbal and performance intelligence tests and a self‐perception measure assessing perceived general competence and social acceptance. Additionally, teachers completed a questionnaire to evaluate children's shyness and emotionality. Results revealed that children with higher verbal intelligence recalled more information spontaneously than those with lower verbal intelligence and that children who provided more accurate cued recall were less suggestible than those who gave less accurate cued recall. There was also a significant interaction effect of verbal intelligence×age on suggestibility, with verbal intelligence being associated with suggestibility for younger children, but not for older children. The effect of individual difference factors on recall and suggestibility differed across age groups. Possible explanations for the results and implications for future studies are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Do jurors "know" what isn't so about child witnesses?

Are expert witnesses needed in child sexual abuse cases to educate jurors about children's memory, suggestibility, and reactions to abuse, or do jurors already know what such experts could tell them? To cast light on this question, we surveyed jurors and jury-eligible college students and compared their beliefs with what is known via scientific research regarding children's memory and ability to testify, reactions to interrogation, and reactions to sexual abuse. We also asked participants to infer results of four widely cited studies of children's suggestibility. Participants' beliefs were consistent with findings from research on some issues (e.g., that children can be led to claim that false events occurred) but diverged from the scientific consensus on other issues (e.g., whether children can remember painful events in infancy). Similarly, participants sometimes overestimated and sometimes underestimated the level of suggestibility observed in empirical studies. Individual differences in accuracy were related to participants' gender, education and ethnicity, and there was considerable disagreement among participants on many questions. Implications of findings for the admissibility of expert testimony in child abuse cases are discussed.

The relation between inhibitory control and children's eyewitness memory

The hypothesis that inhibitory control—an aspect of executive functioning—is related to children's suggestibility was tested. Five- to 7-year-olds (N = 125) participated in a staged event, were suggestively interviewed, and were later given a recognition test. Conflict and interference measures of inhibitory control were taken and compared to children's ability to identify details from the target event and reject details from non-target sources (i.e. false suggestions, details from prior events). Children with higher than average verbal retroactive inhibition skills were more resistant to suggestions than children with poor inhibitory control. Collectively, age and retroactive inhibition skills accounted for 17% of the variance in suggestibility scores, with each making independent contributions. Three other measures of inhibition did not, however, correlate significantly with resistance to suggestion. The findings are discussed in relation to a multi-component view of eyewitness memory emphasizing links between inhibitory control, suggestibility, and source monitoring. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reconceptualizing Children's Suggestibility: Bidirectional and Temporal Properties

Forty-one children (3 to 7 years) were exposed to a staged event and later interviewed by 1 of 41 professional interviewers. All interviews were coded with a detailed, mutually exclusive, and exhaustive coding scheme capturing adult behaviors (leading questions vs. neutral) and child behaviors (acquiescence vs. denial) in a temporally organized manner. Overall, interviewers' use of leading questions did not result in increased acquiescence as previously found. However, one specific type of leading question (i.e., inaccurate misleading) was followed by acquiescence. Lagged sequential analyses showed that it was possible to predict directly from child-to-child behavior, effectively skipping the intervening adult behavior. This result raises questions about the current conceptualization that suggestibility is driven by adult behaviors.

Individual differences in children's suggestibility: a review and synthesis

AbstractOver the last decade, there has been a significant growth in the study of individual differences factors predicting children's suggestibility. In this paper, we synthesize the results of 69 studies examining the relationship of demographic factors (socioeconomic status and gender), cognitive factors (intelligence, language, memory, theory of mind, executive functioning, behavioural ratings of distractibility, and creativity), and psycho‐social factors (social engagement, self concept/self‐efficacy, stress/emotional arousal/state anxiety, maternal attachment styles, parent‐child relationship, parenting styles, temperament, and mental health) and children's suggestibility. We found that for cognitive factors, language ability and creativity were fairly consistently related to suggestibility. The highest correlations for psycho‐social factors and suggestibility were obtained for measures of self‐concept/self‐efficacy, maternal attachment, and the parent‐child relationship. Implications for future research and mechanisms underlying children's suggestibility are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.