Suggestibility of the child witness: a historical review and synthesis

A Missing Link in Suggestibility Research: What Is Known About the Behavior of Field Interviewers in Unstructured Interviews With Young Children?

Despite suggestibility researchers' focus on adult behaviors that distort children's reports, whether behaviors examined in experimental work are used in the field is unknown. The current study presents a mutually exclusive and exhaustive hierarchical coding system that reflects interview questioning behaviors of concern in experimental work. The study examined 80 unstructured interviews conducted by 41 field interviewers with 40 children ages 3 to 7 about known events. Data on the use of leading and neutral questions are presented and include distinctions between accurate and inaccurate suggested information. In addition, analyses show that interviewers are consistent in their style of questioning and that a preinterview measure of interviewers' preference for a qualitative versus a quantitative interviewing style predicted the introduction of novel information into the interview.

Recollection rejection: false-memory editing in children and adults

Mechanisms for editing false events out of memory reports have fundamental implications for theories of false memory and for best practice in applied domains in which false reports must be minimized (e.g., forensic psychological interviews, sworn testimony). A mechanism posited in fuzzy-trace theory, recollection rejection, is considered. A process analysis of false-memory editing is presented, which assumes that false-but-gist-consistent events (e.g., the word SOFA, when the word COUCH was experienced) sometimes cue the retrieval of verbatim traces of the corresponding true events (COUCH), generating mismatches that counteract the high familiarity of false-but-gist-consistent events. Empirical support comes from 2 qualitative phenomena: recollective suppression of semantic false memory and inverted-U relations between retrieval time and semantic false memory. Further support comes from 2 quantitative methodologies: conjoint recognition and receiver operating characteristics. The analysis also predicts a novel false-memory phenomenon (erroneous recollection rejection), in which true events are inappropriately edited out of memory reports.

Cast in Six Ponds and You'll Reel in Something: Looking Back on 25 Years of Research

The author describes his program of research over the past 25 years. This research falls into 6 areas that are interdependent and that inform each other. The overall program is guided by 3 bioecological principles that posit the need for proximal processes and motivation to actualize biological potential. The author presents examples of experiments that fall into each of the 6 areas and show that human potential is highly contextualized and that, consequently, the same person who fails at a task in one domain is often able to succeed at it in a different domain.

The relationship between theory of mind and episodic memory: evidence for the development of autonoetic consciousness

The study investigated a link between theory of mind and episodic memory involving autonoetic consciousness (). Eighty-nine Japanese 4- to 6-year-olds received two versions of a false belief task, a task of aspectuality or knowledge origins, and four memory tests. After controlling for age, most theory of mind abilities showed no interrelations, and own and other's belief understandings in deceptive appearance tasks were solely related to source memory, but not to free recall, temporal ordering, or working memory. Moreover, even when age and verbal intelligence were controlled, the association between representational change and source memory was highly significant in 6-year-olds but not in 4- and 5-year-olds. Results suggest that during development only a particular kind of theory of mind ability is integrated with episodic memory.

Children's memory for trauma and positive experiences

Characteristics of children's memory for a trauma and for a positive event were compared and relationships of memory characteristics to trauma symptoms examined in 30 children who experienced a traumatic event. Results revealed that memories for trauma tended to have less sensory detail and coherence, yet have more meaning and impact than did memories for positive experiences. Sexual traumas, offender relationship, and perceived life threat were associated with memory characteristics. Few relationships between memory characteristics and trauma symptoms were found. Therapist ratings of child memory characteristics were correlated with some child trauma memory characteristic reports. These results are consistent with other studies. Possible explanations include divided attention during the traumatic event and cognitive avoidance occurring after the event.

Eyewitness identification accuracy: a comparison of adults with and those without intellectual disabilities

The effect of variation in the clarity of a witnessed event on the accuracy of eyewitness identification for adults with intellectual disabilities and those without disabilities was examined. Following observation of one of three films (clear, less distinct, or ambiguous) depicting a nonviolent theft, participants were asked to identify the thief from a photo lineup. Across all film conditions, participants with intellectual disabilities made as many correct identifications as did participants without disabilities, but they also made more false identifications and were more prone to guessing. Differences between groups seemed to be attributable to the demand factors inherent in the eyewitness identification task and understanding of the nature of the task itself.

Pictures and Their Colors: What Do Children Remember?

Theories regarding children's reliability as witnesses suggest that children are more likely to confuse memories from different sources especially when the sources are highly similar. To investigate the developmental aspects of source retrieval, we measured brain electrical activity from children and adults while they retrieved content and source information. Similar brain responses among the age groups were found when participants were asked to retrieve content information. However, retrieval of source information improved with age and was accompanied by different patterns of brain potentials. The results implicate immaturity of frontal lobe structures in children's difficulty in retrieving source information.

Reducing misinformation effects in children with cognitive interviews: dissociating recollection and familiarity

Two experiments examined the effect of a cognitive interview on 4- and 8-year-old children's correct recall and subsequent reporting of misinformation. Children viewed an event followed by misinformation that was read or self-generated either before or after a cognitive interview. Children were then given a recognition test under inclusion and exclusion instructions. A cognitive interview elicited more correct details than a control interview. Age-related changes were found such that the 8-year-old children's reports were more complete and they recalled more correct person, action, object, and location details than the 4-year-old children. A cognitive interview given after postevent misinformation reduced children's reporting of misinformation at interview and reduced reporting of self-generated misinformation at test. Process dissociation analyses revealed that recollection increased but familiarity decreased with age.

Descriptions and identifications of strangers by youth and adult eyewitnesses

Two studies varying target gender and mode of target exposure were conducted to compare the quantity, nature, and accuracy of free recall person descriptions provided by youths and adults. In addition, the relation among age, identification accuracy, and number of descriptors reported was considered. Youths (10-14 years) reported fewer descriptors than adults. Exterior facial descriptors (e.g., hair items) were predominant and accurately reported by youths and adults. Accuracy was consistently problematic for youths when reporting body descriptors (e.g., height, weight) and interior facial features. Youths reported a similar number of descriptors when making accurate versus inaccurate identification decisions. This pattern also was consistent for adults. With target-absent lineups, the difference in the number of descriptors reported between adults and youths was greater when making a false positive versus correct rejection.

Individual differences in children's event memory reports and the narrative elaboration technique

Children between 7 and 8 years old took part in a staged event at school and 1 week later were assessed using a short form of the Wechsler Intelligence scale for children (third edition) and measures of metamemory, narrative ability, and socioeconomic status. Two weeks following the event, children either received narrative elaboration training (NET; K.J. Saywitz & L. Snyder, 1996) and were prompted with the four NET cue cards at interview; received verbal prompts corresponding to the cue card categories, but without prior training; or were presented with the cards at interview without prior training. Children given verbal labels as prompts recalled as much information as children who received NET training and cue cards. Measures of intelligence were predictive of amount recalled for cards-only children but not for the other 2 groups, indicating that differences in recall between low- and high-IQ groups were attenuated when recall was supported by NET training or verbal prompting.

The effect of experienced emotions on preschoolers’ narration *This research was conducted at the University of Geneva between 1991 and 1996, directed by Professor D. N. Stern, M. D., Swiss National Science Foundation grant No 32-30804.91

This paper presents a study of the relationship between emotions and autobiographical narratives by preschoolers (aged 3 to 5 years). The children (N = 39) actively participate in a short scenario (the Geneva Emotion-Eliciting Scenario, GEES), whose central theme is the separation of two friends. The children were then asked to narrate this event. The emotions experienced by the child throughout the scenario were analyzed by means of facial expression coding (KIDIES). Coding of childrens’ narratives was based on a content analysis. The analyses showed that the expression of emotions congruent to the events is not related to the content of the narrative, except in the case of the specific separation event.

[Long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences - Actual evidence and needs for research1/2]

There is evidence from some prospective and several retrospective studies that early biological and psychosocial stress in childhood is associated with long-term vulnerability to various mental and physical diseases. In the last few years research findings have accumulated on those emotional, behavioural and psychobiological factors which are responsible for the mediation of these lifelong consequences. They are the cause of an increased risk of somatization and other mental disorders. Particularly anxiety, depression and personality disorders often result in high-risk behaviour that itself is associated with physical disease (cardiovascular disorders, stroke, viral hepatitis, type 2 diabetes, chronic lung diseases) as well as with aggressive behaviour. A survey on the current knowledge of how these various factors interact is presented and a bio-psychopathological model of vulnerability is educed. Implications for future research are outlined and contrasted to actual political trends in Germany.

Memory and suggestibility in maltreated children: age, stress arousal, dissociation, and psychopathology

The present study was designed to assess children's memory and suggestibility in the context of ongoing child maltreatment investigations. One hundred eighty-nine 3-17-year-olds involved in evaluations of alleged maltreatment were interviewed with specific and misleading questions about an anogenital examination and clinical assessment. For the anogenital examination, children's stress arousal was indexed both behaviorally and physiologically. For all children, individual-difference data were gathered on intellectual and short-term memory abilities, general psychopathology, and dissociative tendencies. Interviewers' ratings were available for a subset of children concerning the amount of detail provided in abuse disclosures. Results indicated that general psychopathology, short-term memory, and intellectual ability predicted facets of children's memory performance. Older compared to younger children evinced fewer memory errors and greater suggestibility resistance. Age was also significantly related to the amount of detail in children's abuse disclosures. Neither dissociation nor stress arousal significantly predicted children's memory. Implications for understanding maltreated children's eyewitness memory are discussed.

Forensic evaluation of trauma syndromes in children

There are significant differences between a clinical evaluation and a forensic evaluation [289-291]. These differences must be kept solidly in mind in performing the evaluation. The forensic evaluator needs to assess the validity of complaints, including the possibility of malingering and the child's ability to describe symptoms accurately, the connection between the symptoms and a given incident, and the potential long-term sequelae of a trauma. The goal of the interview is not to treat, but to obtain information. Assessing the validity of complaints is perhaps the greatest challenge. This requires obtaining and reconciling data from numerous sources, including interviews with the child and parents, and information from other sources, as well as rating scales and validity testing. One must be very cautious in asking leading questions and using standardized PTSD protocols, lest they teach the parents and child about the symptoms of PTSD and thereby distort the information they provide as a result. The forensic interviewer should consider what will be needed when called to testify in court. What data will convince the jury? How might the opposing attorney challenge the assessment? What scientific studies support the findings and conclusions concerning the diagnosis, functional impairment, and validity. The precise DSM-IV-TR diagnosis is not always key in a forensic evaluation. What is essential is establishing the connection between the trauma and ensuing emotional problems. All of the symptoms the individual has as a result of the trauma become important, whether or not they contribute to fulfillment of DSM-IV-TR criteria. This contrasts with a clinical evaluation in which one needs to demonstrate the existence of a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis for reimbursement purposes. Finally, the forensic evaluator should be familiar with current practice guidelines for examination of children with PTSD. Any deviation may need to be explained in court [264,292].

Nearly 4 years after an event: children's eyewitness memory and adults' perceptions of children's accuracy

OBJECTIVE

The current study examined children's eyewitness memory nearly 4 years after an event and the ability of adults to evaluate such memory.

METHOD

In Phase 1, 7- and 10-year olds were interviewed about a past event after a nearly 4-year delay. The interview included leading questions relevant to child abuse as well as statements designed to implicate the original confederate. In Phase 2, laypersons and professionals watched a videotaped interview (from Phase 1) that they were misled to believe was from an ongoing abuse investigation. Respondents then rated the child's accuracy and credibility, and the probability that the child had been abused.

RESULTS

In Phase 1, few significant age differences in memory accuracy were found, perhaps owing in part to small sample size. Although children made a variety of commission errors, none claimed outright to have been abused. Nevertheless, some of the children's answers (e.g., saying that their picture had been taken, or that they had been in a bathtub) might cause concern in a forensic setting. In Phase 2, professional and nonprofessional respondents were unable to reliably estimate the overall accuracy of children's statements. However, respondents were able to reasonably estimate the accuracy of children's answers to abuse questions. Respondents were also more likely to think that 7-year olds compared to 10-year olds had been abused. Professionals were significantly less likely than nonprofessionals to believe that credible evidence of abuse existed. Professionals who indicated personal experience with child abuse or a close relationship with an abuse victim were more likely to rate children as abused. A gender bias to rate boys as more accurate than girls was apparent among laypersons but not professionals.

CONCLUSIONS

Children were generally resistant to suggestions that abuse occurred during a long-ago generally forgotten event, but some potentially concerning errors were made. Both professionals and non-professionals had difficulty estimating the accuracy of children's reports, but adults were more likely to rate children as accurate if the children answered abuse-related questions correctly. Training and personal experience were associated with adults' ratings of children's reports. Implications for evaluations of child abuse reports are discussed.

Source monitoring reduces the suggestibility of preschool children

The relation between source monitoring and suggestibility was examined among preschool children. Thirty-two 3- to 5-year-olds were simultaneously presented with a brief story in two different modalities, as a silent video vignette and a spoken narrative. Each modality presented unique information about the story, but the information in the two versions was mutually compatible. The children were then asked a series of questions, including questions about the source (modality) of story details, and leading questions about story details (to assess suggestibility). Performance on the source-monitoring questions was highly correlated with the ability to resist suggestion. In addition, children who were asked source-monitoring questions prior to leading questioning were less susceptible to suggestion than were those who were asked the leading questions first. This study provides evidence that source monitoring can play a causal role in reducing the suggestibility of preschool children.

Allegations of abuse: the need for responsible practice

The current UK child protection process has evolved reactively out of scandals. This has led to a culture of support and empathy with those making allegations of abuse while offering no robust means by which false claims can be recognised. Information has been collected from 22 families who became subject to criminal or civil proceedings when a female adolescent or young adult developed a mental health problem. The resultant outcomes were mostly disastrous, for the young person and the family. In every case there was no evidence supporting the allegations of abuse, and substantive evidence they were false, yet this crucial information had not been sought. Each of the 22 families complained that enquiries began from a presumption of guilt. The families documented common and recurring problems, which led them to feel alienated from professionals. Claims of innocence were taken as evidence of guilt, and information was interpreted in a manner that fitted only this presumption while factual evidence to the contrary was ignored. The reasons underlying this professional behaviour are considered. Among the presumed 'victims', outcomes were positively correlated with the level of residual contact between the alleged victim and their family, especially the mother. However, this did not hold true in cases where allegations of abuse arose in the context of an acrimonious parental relationship breakdown. There were no good outcomes where parents were completely excluded. It is not clear that families and alleged 'victims' will fare any better under recently revised guidance and framework.

Does the nature of the experience influence suggestibility? A study of children's event memory

Two experiments examined the effects of event modality on children's memory and suggestibility. In Experiment 1, 3- and 5-year-old children directly participated in, observed, or listened to a narrative about an event. In an interview immediately after the event, free recall was followed by misleading or leading questions and, in turn, test recall questions. One week later children were reinterviewed. In Experiment 2, 4-year-old children either participated in or listened to a story about an event, either a single time or to a criterion level of learning. Misleading questions were presented either immediately or 1 week after learning, followed by test recall questions. Five-year-old children were more accurate than 3-year-olds and those participating were more accurate than those either observing or listening to a narrative. However, method of assessment, level of event learning, delay to testing, and variables relating to the misled items also influenced the magnitude of misinformation effects.

Differences and Similarities in Event Recall and Suggestibility Between Children and Adults in Germany and the United States

Abstract. Children (5-6 year olds, 7-8 year olds, 9-10 year olds) and adults from Germany and the United States were shown a brief video of a theft. One week later, participants were asked to give a free narrative of an observed event (free recall), followed either by sets of misleading or unbiased questions, and finally they were given a three-choice recognition question for each queried item. German participants of all ages had higher levels of correct free recall than did American participants. American adults and 9-10 year olds gave more correct responses to the open-ended unbiased questions than did their German counterparts. Germans of all ages made more correct responses to the misleading questions, whereas national differences, favoring the Germans, for incorrect response to misleading questions were restricted to the 5-6 year olds. National differences were interpreted as reflecting possible differences in strategic abilities, exposure to formal instruction, and the degree to which children experience self-directed, autonomous learning opportunities.

Posttraumatic stress disorder in children. The influence of developmental factors

Despite the prevalence of childhood trauma, there are currently no developmentally oriented cognitive theories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This paper outlines the definitional issues of PTSD in children, reviews the incidence of PTSD in children, and compares PTSD profiles in children and adults. We propose that a cognitive theory of childhood PTSD needs to accommodate developmental factors, including knowledge, language development, memory, emotion regulation, and social cognition, in addition to contextual factors such as family interactions. Implications of these developmental factors for assessment and treatment of traumatized children are discussed.

Naturally Occurring and Suggestion- Dependent Memory Distortions: The Convergence of Disparate Research Traditions

Two lines of research that have revealed the existence of memory distortions are reviewed. Both began at the beginning of this century and continue through today. One is a coherent research tradition aimed at investigating suggestion-dependent memory distortions produced by clinical and social psychological manipulations; the other consists of a series of unrelated studies on naturally occurring memory distortions. These latter studies are aimed at establishing some of the basic processes underlying the functioning of normal human memory and have not previously been considered together as part of the literature on memory errors.

Fuzzy-trace theory: dual processes in memory, reasoning, and cognitive neuroscience

Fuzzy-trace theory has evolved in response to counterintuitive data on how memory development influences the development of reasoning. The two traditional perspectives on memory-reasoning relations--the necessity and constructivist hypotheses--stipulate that the accuracy of children's memory for problem information and the accuracy of their reasoning are closely intertwined, albeit for different reasons. However, contrary to necessity, correlational and experimental dissociations have been found between children's memory for problem information that is determinative in solving certain problems and their solutions of those problems. In these same tasks, age changes in memory for problem information appear to be dissociated from age changes in reasoning. Contrary to constructivism, correlational and experimental dissociations also have been found between children's performance on memory tests for actual experience and memory tests for the meaning of experience. As in memory-reasoning studies, age changes in one type of memory performance do not seem to be closely connected to age changes in the other type of performance. Subsequent experiments have led to dual-process accounts in both the memory and reasoning spheres. The account of memory development features four other principles: parallel verbatim-gist storage, dissociated verbatim-gist retrieval, memorial bases of conscious recollection, and identity/similarity processes. The account of the development of reasoning features three principles: gist extraction, fuzzy-to-verbatim continua, and fuzzy-processing preferences. The fuzzy-processing preference is a particularly important notion because it implies that gist-based intuitive reasoning often suffices to deliver "logical" solutions and that such reasoning confers multiple cognitive advantages that enhance accuracy. The explanation of memory-reasoning dissociations in cognitive development then falls out of fuzzy-trace theory's dual-process models of memory and reasoning. More explicitly, in childhood reasoning tasks, it is assumed that both verbatim and gist traces of problem information are stored. Responding accurately to memory tests for presented problem information depends primarily on verbatim memory abilities (preserving traces of that information and accessing them when the appropriate memory probes are administered). However, accurate solutions to reasoning problems depend primarily on gist-memory abilities (extracting the correct gist from problem information, focusing on that gist during reasoning, and accessing reasoning operations that process that gist). Because verbatim and gist memories exhibit considerable dissociation, both during storage and when they are subsequently accessed on memory tests, dissociations of verbatim-based memory performance from gist-based reasoning are predictable. Conversely, associations are predicted in situations in which memory and reasoning are based on the same verbatim traces (Brainerd & Reyna, 1988) and in situations in which memory and reasoning are based on the same gist traces (Reyna & Kiernan, 1994). Fuzzy-trace theory's memory and reasoning principles have been applied in other research domains. Four such domains are developmental cognitive neuroscience studies of false memory, studies of false memory in brain-damaged patients, studies of reasoning errors in judgment and decision making, and studies of retrieval mechanisms in recall. In the first domain, the principles of parallel verbatim-gist storage, dissociated verbatim-gist retrieval, and identity/similarity processes have been used to explain both spontaneous and implanted false reports in children and in the elderly. These explanations have produced some surprising predictions that have been verified: false reports do not merely decline with age during childhood but increase under theoretically specified conditions; reports of events that were not experienced can nevertheless be highly persistent over time; and false reports can be suppressed by retrieving verbatim traces of corresponding true events. In the second domain, the same principles have been invoked to explain why some forms of brain damage lead to elevated levels of false memory and other forms lead to reduced levels of false memory. In the third domain, the principles of gist extraction, fuzzy-to-verbatim continua, and fuzzy-processing preferences have been exploited to formulate a general theory of loci of processing failures in judgment and decision making, cluminating in a developmental account of degrees of rationality that distinguishes more and less advanced reasoning. This theory has in turn been used to formulate local models, such as the inclusion illusions model, that explain the characteristic reasoning errors that are observed on specific judgment and decision-making tasks. Finally, in the fourth domain, a dual-process conception of recall has been derived from the principles of parallel verbatim-gist storage and dissociated verbatim-gist retrieval. In this conception, which has been used to explain cognitive triage effects in recall and robust false recall, targets are recalled either by directly accessing their verbatim traces and reading the retrieved information out of consciousness or by reconstructively processing their gist traces.

The Video Suggestibility Scale for Children: how generalizable is children's performance to other measures of suggestibility?

This study explored the generalizability of the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (VSSC), which was developed by Scullin and colleagues (Scullin & Ceci, 2001; Scullin & Hembrooke, 1998) as a tool for discriminating among children (aged three to five years) who have different levels of suggestibility. The VSSC consists of two subscales; Yield (a measure of children's willingness to acquiesce to misleading questions) and Shift (a measure of children's tendency to change their responses after feedback from the interviewer). Children's (N = 77) performance on each of the subscales was compared with their performance using several other measures of suggestibility. These measures included children's willingness to assent to a false event as well as the number of false interviewer suggestions and false new details that the children provided when responding to cued-recall questions about an independent true-biased and an independent false (non-experienced) event. An independent samples t-test revealed that those children who assented to the false event generated higher scores on the Yield measure. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that Yield was a significant predictor of the number of false details reported about the false activity, but not the true-biased activity. There was no significant relationship between the Shift subscale and any of the dependent variables. The potential contribution of the VSSC for forensic researchers and practitioners is discussed.

Children's susceptibility to retroactive interference: the effects of age and degree of learning

The effects of age and degree of learning on children's susceptibility to retroactive interference were examined. Children (4- and 7-year-olds) participated in a target game either once or three times. Each time, they learned the target stimuli to criterion. Two days later, the children either rested or participated in a second game containing inconsistent information. Retrieval tests were administered 3 weeks later. Children who participated in the target game repeatedly recognized more information from that game, both accurately and as intrusions, than did children who participated only once. Both age groups were susceptible to retroactive interference; degree of susceptibility was affected by neither age nor degree of learning. Nevertheless, the 7-year-olds were more accurate at test. These findings suggest that differences in the forgetting rate between 4- and 7-year-olds are not caused by differential susceptibility to retroactive interference.

Describing individual incidents of sexual abuse: a review of research on the effects of multiple sources of information on children's reports

OBJECTIVE

For successful prosecution of child sexual abuse, children are often required to provide reports about individual, alleged incidents. Although verbally or mentally rehearsing memory of an incident can strengthen memories, children's report of individual incidents can also be contaminated when they experience other events related to the individual incidents (e.g., informal interviews, dreams of the incident) and/or when they have similar, repeated experiences of an incident, as in cases of multiple abuse.

METHOD

Research is reviewed on the positive and negative effects of these related experiences on the length, accuracy, and structure of children's reports of a particular incident.

RESULTS

Children's memories of a particular incident can be strengthened when exposed to information that does not contradict what they have experienced, thus promoting accurate recall and resistance to false, suggestive influences. When the encountered information differs from children's experiences of the target incident, however, children can become confused between their experiences-they may remember the content but not the source of their experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

We discuss the implications of this research for interviewing children in sexual abuse investigations and provide a set of research-based recommendations for investigative interviewers.