Props and children's event reports: the impact of a 1-year delay

Effects of the narrative elaboration technique and open-ended rapport on accuracy of children's recall according to age

Introduction

This study explored the impacts of the narrative elaboration technique (NET) and open-ended rapport building on younger (n = 30, ages 5-6) and older (n = 30, ages 7-8) children's free recall and suggestibility.

Methods

Children were randomly assigned to either a NET condition or an open-ended rapport condition after engaging in a photo-taking play session with an experimenter. Then, a novel interviewer asked them about the play session. The effects of the experimental conditions on children's free recall and suggestibility were examined according to children's age groups.

Results

Results revealed that open-ended rapport played a more significant positive role in young children's free recall and suggestibility when compared to NET. No significant differences were observed in the effects of NET and open-ended rapport on older children's memory performance.

Discussion

Practical guidance is provided in terms of prioritizing open-ended rapport over NET to maximize young children's spontaneous and accurate recall.

To ask or not to ask: strategic recall, but not spontaneous recall, decreases by the passage of time in 46-month-olds' memory of a unique event

Children's ability to intentionally recall events lessens with temporal distance to the occurrence. However, little is known about the effects of retention time on memories that emerge spontaneously. We examined spontaneous and strategic retrieval in eighty-one 46-month-olds' memory of a lab event after 1 week (the 1-week Condition) versus 43 weeks (the 43-week Condition) in a between-subjects design, using well-established procedures (Krøjgaard et al., in Consciousness and Cognition 55(91): 105, 2017). While spontaneous recall showed no significant effect of retention, the children's strategic recall was negatively affected: even though the children overall still remembered the event, the children in the 43-week Condition showed reduced voluntary recall compared to the children in the 1-week Condition. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess spontaneous recall after such a long retention interval. The findings add to existing evidence of two modes of retrieval in early childhood and are of both theoretical and forensic relevance.

Effects of Delay, Question Type, and Socioemotional Support on Episodic Memory Retrieval by Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Twenty-seven autistic children and 32 typically developing (TD) peers were questioned about an experienced event after a two-week delay and again after a two-month delay, using the Revised National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol. Recall prompts elicited more detailed and more accurate responses from children than recognition prompts. Autistic children recalled fewer correct narrative details than TD peers when questioned using open invitations, cued invitations, and directive questions. Nonetheless, they were as accurate as TD peers when responding to all types of prompts. The informativeness and accuracy of children's reports remained unchanged over time. Social support was beneficial when children were interviewed for the first time but not after a longer delay.

Gating Out Misinformation: Can Young Children Follow Instructions to Ignore False Information?

The current study investigated the effects of misinformation on children's memory reports after practice with the logic-of-opposition instruction at time of test. Four- and 6-year-old children participated in a play event in Session 1. During a two-week delay, parents presented their children with either misinformation or correct information about the play event. Prior to a memory interview in Session 2, some misled children were given a developmentally appropriate logic-of-opposition instruction to not report information provided by their parents. Results indicated that children were misled by the incorrect information, but that the logic-of-opposition instruction aided in the children's retrieval of the original memory, particularly for the 6-year-olds. Implications of the results for memory malleability and social demand effects in children are discussed.

Fluidity in autobiographical memories: relationship memories sampled on two occasions

We investigated consistency of relationship memories. College undergraduates described five events (first meeting, first date, first fight, most embarrassing event, and favourite memory) from their current relationship or, if not currently dating, most recent relationship. Three months later, they were asked to describe the same events again. We scored the consistency of these narratives at three levels of analysis: event, basic information and propositions. The participants demonstrated low consistency in their descriptions, particularly at more detailed levels of analysis. Consistency depended somewhat on the events being recalled, with participants being more consistent for commonly retrieved relationship memories such as first dates. We also found that those individuals who continued in a relationship were less consistent than those describing a previous relationship. These still dating couples had increased opportunities to narrate event stories together and to update knowledge about the relationship through new episodes. In this fashion, updating of experiences may have led to more inconsistencies in recall over time. When considered with research on flashbulb memories, our findings indicate that updating and revisions may be general features of autobiographical memory.

Exploratory assessments of child abuse: children's responses to interviewer's questions across multiple interview sessions

OBJECTIVE

The present study extends field research on interviews with young children suspected of having been abused by examining multiple assessment interviews designed to be inquisitory and exploratory, rather than formal evidential or forensic interviews.

METHODS

Sixty-six interviews with 24 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years who were undergoing an assessment for suspected child abuse were examined. Each child was interviewed 2, 3, or 4 times. The interviewer's questions were categorized in terms of openness (open, closed or choice), in terms of the degree of interviewer input (free recall, direct, leading, suggestive), and for topic (whether the question was abuse-specific or nonabuse-related). Children's on-task responses were coded for amount of information (number of clauses) reported in relation to each question type and topic, and off-task responses were categorized as either ignoring the question or a diverted response.

RESULTS

Children provided a response to most questions, independent of question type or topic and typically responded with one or two simple clauses. Some children disclosed abuse in response to open-ended questions; generally, however, failure to respond to a question was more likely for abuse-specific than for nonabuse-related questions.

CONCLUSION

The findings are discussed in terms of the growing literature on interviewing children about suspected abuse, particularly in interviews conducted over multiple sessions.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Assessment of suspected child abuse may involve more than a single investigative interview. Research examining children's responses to questioning over multiple interviews (or single interviews conducted over multiple sessions) is necessary for the development of best practise guidelines for the assessment of abuse.

Post-event information affects children's autobiographical memory after one year

In two experiments, we examined whether post-event information (PEI) about true and false events persisted in children's reports after approximately 1 year. In Experiment 1, 4- to 6-year-olds were given PEI and then were given memory tests 2 weeks and 15 months later. Although PEI appeared in free recall at the initial testing, it decreased substantially by the long-term test. In contrast, on recognition tasks the children showed facilitation and misinformation effects at initial and follow-up tests. Experiment 2 replicated lasting misinformation and facilitation effects in recognition memory among 4- to 9-year-olds who were tested after 1-week and 10-month delays. We conclude that true and false reminders about an experienced event continue to affect children's memory approximately 1 year later.

Depression and ethnicity as intermediary variables among dissociation, trauma-related cognitions, and PTSD symptomatology in youths

The study of childhood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has grown in recent years, and several variables have been closely linked to the etiology of this condition. Prominent examples include dissociation, trauma-related cognitions, and depression, but no empirically based model regarding these variables has been presented. We examined 90 adolescents housed in a state-run facility for youths who experienced maltreatment, violence, and/or other traumas. Utilizing psychometrically strong dependent measures, we identified a structural equation model with depression as a key mediating variable between (1) dissociation and trauma-related cognitions and (2) PTSD symptomatology. In addition, African American status was found to weaken this relationship, whereas multiracial status was found to strengthen this relationship. These results are discussed within the context of contemporary integrative theories regarding the developmental psychopathology of PTSD in youths.

Testimony and interrogation of minors: Assumptions about maturity and morality

This article examines the legal histories and social contexts of testimony and interrogation involving minors, developmental research on suggestibility and judgment, interactions between development and legal/sociological contexts, and the reasoning behind how minors are treated in different legal contexts. The authors argue (a) that young witnesses, victims, and suspects alike possess youthful characteristics that influence their ability to validly inform legal processes, some of which were recently recognized by the Supreme Court as they apply to the juvenile death penalty, and (b) that consideration should be given to reforming current practices in the context of juvenile interrogation. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

When initial interviews are delayed a year: effect on children's 2-year recall

Three- to nine-year-old children were interviewed about a medical emergency (injury requiring hospital ER treatment) two years after it occurred. Half of the number of children had been interviewed shortly after injury as well as 6 and 12 months later, while the remaining children had had only one prior interview a year after injury. There was remarkably little long-term deterioration in memory by both groups. Having a delayed initial interview had two effects, and both were relevant only to the harder-to-remember hospital treatment event: (a) The late-interview group was less accurate, and (b) early-interview children had more extensive free recall, suggesting that multiple prior interviews teach children the "rules of the memory game'' when they are asked open-ended questions. Forensic implications are discussed.

Reminiscence and hypermnesia in children's eyewitness memory

Three experiments examined reminiscence and hypermnesia in 5- and 6-year-olds' memory for an event across repeated interviews that occurred either immediately afterward (Experiment 1) or after a 6-month delay (Experiments 2 and 3). Reminiscence (recall of new information) was reliably obtained in all of the experiments, although the numbers of new items recalled were fewer after a delay than when the interviews occurred immediately afterward. Hypermnesia (increasing total recall over repeated recall attempts) was obtained only in Experiment 1 when interviews occurred immediately and 24 h after the event.

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.

Factors associated with young children's long-term recall of an invasive medical procedure: a preliminary investigation

This exploratory study investigated children's recall of the voiding cysto-urethrogram (VCUG, x-ray of the kidneys) after a 6-month delay and the associations between children's memory reports and specific behaviors coded during the procedure (distraction, crying, procedure-related talk). Thirty-two children, aged 2 to 7 years, were interviewed 6 months after undergoing the VCUG. Twenty-nine of the 32 children reported information about the VCUG after 6 months. Free recall was skeletal but highly accurate; more information was reported in prompted recall, but accuracy was reduced. Older children provided more complete and accurate reports than did younger children. Independently of age, specific child behaviors were associated with children's memory reports: crying during the VCUG was negatively associated with the correct information reported and accuracy in prompted recall; procedure-related talk was positively associated with the correct information reported in free recall; and distraction was negatively associated with the accuracy of free recall. The implications for intervention in pediatric contexts are discussed.

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.

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.

Autobiographische Erinnerung bei jungen Kindern: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen bei der Verbesserung ihrer freien Berichte

Zusammenfassung. Auf der Grundlage des Modells zur Entwicklung des autobiographischen Gedächtnisses von Fivush (1993) wurde eine innovative Interviewtechnik evaluiert, die speziell für die forensische Praxis und die Befragung von Kindern als Augenzeugen entwickelt wurde. Eine Woche nachdem eine Gruppe von Kindergartenkindern und Zweitklässlern einen Videofilm gesehen hatten, wurden sie aufgefordert alles zu berichten, an das sie sich von dem Film erinnern konnten. Als unspezifische Abrufhilfen dienten vier Bildkärtchen, die als Hinweisreize für die beteiligten Personen, den Ort des Geschehens, die Aktionen und die gesprochenen Dialoge sukzessive vorgelegt wurden. Die Abrufhilfen führten in beiden Altersgruppen zu einem signifikanten Anstieg an korrekt berichteter Information, ohne die Fehlerraten negativ zu beeinflussen, wobei Zweitklässler insgesamt mehr von den unspezifischen Abrufhilfen profitierten als die Kindergartenkinder. In beiden Altersgruppen gab es Kinder, die keinen Zuwachs in ihren freien Berichten verzeichnen oder nicht von den Abbildungen abstrahieren konnten. Die Ergebnisse werden im Hinblick auf das zugrunde liegende Modell und die Tauglichkeit der auf das Modell aufbauenden Bildkärtchen als Interviewmethode diskutiert.

Recall of farm hazards in Australian primary school age children using a 3-d visual cue test

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the 'Spot the Hazard' farm safety resource which employs 3-D visual stimuli to develop rudimentary risk assessment skills in children. Primary school children from three local schools in north-west New South Wales were presented with the resource and talked about the farm hazards present. Children's recall of the hazards and the extent to which they compared the resource to their own farm was assessed after an initial presentation at post-tests of 1, 14 and 28 days, across three experimental groups. Individual differences in achievement were controlled for using the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Screener (WIAT). Analysis revealed that children exposed to the resource recalled significantly more hazards and made more comparisons to their own farm experiences than controls. However, differences on individual achievement were observed between groups due to a lack of randomisation. Farm safety educational resources for children are more effective when verbal and nonverbal strategies are used and when children are exposed to such cues repeatedly. The development of farm safety educational resources for children which employ spatial cues is encouraged. Further clarification of results would entail a more rigorous randomised control trial.

Children's testimony: a review of research on memory for past experiences

This review of children's testimony focuses on research related to memory for past experiences. The aspects of the memory system that are involved in testimony are discussed and the development of autobiographical memory is examined. Relevant research findings are summarized in the context of an information-processing model of memory and the implications of this work for clinical practice are outlined. We conclude that (1) under certain conditions, even very young children can remember and report past experiences with some accuracy over very long periods of time; (2) substantial and significant developmental differences have been demonstrated in children's abilities to provide eyewitness testimony; (3) children can be influenced in a variety of ways to provide complete and elaborated reports of events that never occurred; and (4) even experts cannot always tell the difference between true and false reports.

Understanding children's activity memory: the role of outcomes

In three experiments the effectiveness of activity outcomes as memory cues was investigated. In the first experiment, 5-year-olds participated in four activities. In two of these activities, action results were maintained during the unfolding of the activity and perceptually preserved in the activity's end product. In the other two activities, action results "disappeared" from view during the activity and were transformed within the end product. Each activity was recalled under one of four cue conditions: verbal, object, action, and reenactment. For half of the children, the end product was also present during retrieval. Memory for the two types of activities varied with cue condition and with the presence of the end product. In a second experiment, children attempted to describe how the end products could be recreated from the materials used in the activities without participating in them. Patterns of performance confirmed that memory and not inference was responsible for the effects observed in the first experiment. In a third experiment, 5- and 7-year-olds participated in activities of the two types. Within each, picture supports were provided to investigate whether the perceptual availability of action results during encoding influences memory. Results are discussed with respect to an activity memory framework and implications for science education.

The role of accuracy motivation on children's and adults' event recall

To examine the role of accuracy motivation in event recall, 6-, 7-, and 8-year-old children and adults were shown a short video about a conflict between two groups of children. Three weeks later, participants were asked a set of unbiased specific questions about the video. Following A. Koriat and M. Goldsmith's (1994) distinction of quantity- and quality-oriented memory assessments, and based on their model of strategic regulation of memory accuracy (1996), accuracy motivation was manipulated across three conditions. Participants were (a) forced to provide an answer to each question (low accuracy motivation), (b) initially instructed to withhold uncertain answers by saying "I don't know" (medium accuracy motivation), or (c) rewarded for every single correct answer (high accuracy motivation). When motivation for accuracy was high, children as young as 6 were to withhold uncertain answers to the benefit of accuracy. The expected quality-quantity trade-off emerged only for peripheral items but not for the central items. Participants who were forced to provide an answer gave more correct answers but also high numbers of incorrect answers than participants who had the option to answer "I don't know." The results are discussed in terms of the underlying model as well as in terms of forensic interviewing.

Remembering and reporting by children: the influence of cues and props

Until recently nonverbal props received little experimental attention in spite of the wide use of props such as toys and drawing in child clinical contexts. This article reviews research investigating the effectiveness of props as means of facilitating children's recall and reporting of past events. In the first section, developmental and theoretical considerations influencing effectiveness of various kinds of props as aids to the retrieval and communication of information are outlined. Thereafter, findings of empirical research are reviewed for real props from the event, toys including dolls, drawing, context reinstatement, and photographs. Research findings suggest that a range of factors influence the extent to which props facilitate children's reports of past events, including specificity of the information provided by the prop, the way the prop is presented during the interview, delay between the event and interview and, critical to these factors, the age of the child. Areas requiring future theoretical and research attention are identified.

Draw It again Sam: the effect of drawing on children's suggestibility and source monitoring ability

Preschool children (aged 3 to 6 years) participated in a magic show. Later, the children were given repeated true and false reminders about the show. Half the children were asked to draw these true and false reminders (drawing condition) and half the children were asked questions about the reminders but not to draw them (question condition). Later, children in the drawing condition had better recall of true reminders than children in the question group; however, children in the drawing group also recalled more false reminders than children in the question group. Finally, although children in the drawing group had better memory of the source of the reminders than children in the question group, both groups equally reported that the false reminders actually happened.

Assessing the value of structured protocols for forensic interviews of alleged child abuse victims

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effectiveness of a structured interview protocol (NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol) operationalizing universally recommended guidelines for forensic interviews.

METHOD

The NICHD Investigative Protocol was designed to maximize the amount of information obtained using recall memory probes, which are likely to elicit more accurate information than recognition memory probes. Forensic investigators were trained to use the NICHD protocol while conducting feedback-monitored simulation interviews. The utility of the protocol was then evaluated by comparing 55 protocol interviews with 50 prior interviews by the same investigators, matched with respect to characteristics likely to affect the richness of the children's accounts. The comparison was based on an analysis of the investigators' utterance types, distribution, and timing, as well as quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the information produced.

RESULTS

As predicted, protocol interviews contained more open-ended prompts overall as well as before the first option-posing utterance than non-protocol interviews did. More details were obtained using open-ended invitations and fewer were obtained using focused questions in protocol interviews than in non-protocol interviews, although the total number of details elicited did not differ significantly. In both conditions, older children provided more details than younger children did.

CONCLUSION

The findings confirmed that implementation of professionally recommended practices affected the behavior of interviewers in both the pre-substantive and substantive phases of their interviews and enhanced the quality (i.e., likely accuracy) of information elicited from alleged victims.