Suggestibility, social support, and memory for a novel experience in young children

How Chronological Age, Theory of Mind, and Yield are Interrelated to Memory and Suggestion in Young Children

We investigated the interrelations between chronological age, theory of mind (ToM), Yield (as a measure of individual suggestibility), memory and acceptance of experimental suggestion in a sample of children between 3 and 7 years old (N = 106). One week after participants interacted with 'a Teacher', they were asked to recall activities carried out with the Teacher (direct experience) and the contents of a story read to them by the Teacher (indirect experience). Data were examined with an analysis of developmental trajectories, which allows establishing the predictor value of socio-cognitive developmental factors regardless of participants' chronological age. It also estimates predictor values in interaction with the age and determines whether age is the best predictor for performance. As in previous research, results showed that chronological age was the main predictor of memory performance, both for direct experience (i.e., activities performed) and indirect experience (i.e., contents of the story). However, ToM and Yield, together with participants' ages, modulated their acceptance of the external suggestions received (presented only once, one week after the event). A turning point was observed at age 4.6. Below this age, the greater the mentalist skills (higher ToM), the lower was the vulnerability to external suggestion. Still, children below this age characterized individually as being suggestible (Yield medium or high) were more vulnerable to suggestion the younger they were. Thus, developmental socio-cognitive factors might modulate young children's vulnerability to external suggestions, even if received only once.

Parents' attachment orientation, interviewers' support, and children's memory for a mildly distressing event

Parents' attachment orientations predict children's memory about distressing life events, such that parents who are less secure in close relationships tend to have children who are less accurate in their memory reports. This study examined whether socially supportive interviewing would reduce differences in children's memory performance associated with parents' attachment. Children (3 to 5 years, N = 63) and their primary caretakers took part in the Preschool Attachment Classification System (PACS), a moderately distressing event for children of preschool age that is based on the Strange Situation Procedure. Children's memory for the event was then tested shortly thereafter by either a supportive or a non-supportive interviewer. In the non-supportive condition, children whose parents scored higher on attachment avoidance provided lower proportions of correct free recall. However, the association was not significant for children in the supportive condition. In addition, higher parental attachment anxiety predicted lower proportions of correct free recall for children of highly avoidant parents, but not for children of parents lower in attachment avoidance. For direct questions, age differences in proportion correct and proportion incorrect favoured older children. Findings provide insight into interviewing techniques at time of memory retrieval that benefit children of insecure parents.

Individual Differences in Children's Suggestibility: An Updated Review

The present review is intended as an overview of our current understanding of how children's individual characteristics, in terms of demographic, cognitive, and psycho-social variables, may influence their susceptibility to suggestion. The goals are to revisit conceptual models of the mechanisms of suggestibility, to provide an updated practical guide for practitioners, and to make recommendations for future research. Results suggest that children with intellectual impairment and those with nascent language skills may be particularly vulnerable to suggestion. Further, memory for separate events, theory of mind, executive function, temperament, and social competence may not be related to suggestibility, whereas additional work is needed to clarify the potential contributions of knowledge, stress, mental health, parental elaborative style, and adverse experiences/maltreatment to children's suggestibility.

Canine-Assisted Interviews Bolster Informativeness for Negative Autobiographical Memories

Humans and animals share a unique bond. Professionals are capitalizing on the human–animal bond by incorporating animals into therapy, forensic interviews, and the courtroom. However, the mnemonic consequence for including dogs in forensic interviews has not been empirically evaluated. In the current study, we examined whether the use of dogs increases the quantity of verbal reports for emotional events. Undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to dog or no dog conditions. Participants were interviewed about positive experienced events and negative experienced events. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for quantity of new information. Participants shared more new information in negative event reports with a dog present than with no dog present. There were no significant differences in the quantity of information disclosed for positive event memories between dog conditions. Canine-assisted interviews may provide comfort to people, resulting in more elaborative autobiographical reports about negative stressful events.

Using implicit encouragement to increase narrative productivity in children: Preliminary evidence and legal implications

Statements made by children in a range of legal settings can irrevocably impact their family structure, relationships, and living environment. Because these statements can fundamentally alter children's futures, efforts have been made to identify methods to enhance children's reports by increasing comprehensiveness, completeness, and accuracy. Interviewer support has broadly been considered a method of interest, but variations in what constitutes "support" have highlighted the need for greater specificity in documenting how different facets of supportive behaviors relate to children's reporting tendencies. In this review, we describe work focused on the effects of interviewer support, on children's memory completeness and accuracy. We then describe to a subset of interviewer behaviors that encourage elaboration in dyadic interactions: back-channeling and vocatives. We present preliminary evidence suggesting that these utterances, referred to as implicit encouragement, can increase the amount of detail provided without compromising accuracy. Implications for custody evaluations are discussed.

Effects of Interviewer Support on Children's Memory and Suggestibility: Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Experimental Research

The accuracy of children's reports of abuse has been hotly debated in the press, academia, and the courtroom. Yet, children's accuracy depends, in part, on the context in which children are interviewed. Guidelines often recommend creating a supportive psychosocial context to promote open, honest responding; however, there is also concern that support promotes social desirability and acquiescence to suggestion, leading children to report more of what they perceive adults want to hear than the truth. The question remains as to whether there is a sufficient body of scientific research to determine whether interviewer supportiveness improves interview outcomes while minimizing children's stress or whether it increases suggestibility and impairs accuracy. Using a systematic search strategy and meta-analyses, this study identifies and reviews findings from experimental studies of the effects of interviewer supportiveness on the accuracy of children's reports. Although the number of studies in the evidence base is small ( n = 15), the studies are of relatively good quality. Results suggest noncontingent interviewer support bolsters children's accuracy. Children are more resistant and less acquiescent to suggestive questions when interviewers are supportive as compared to nonsupportive or neutral. Effects are in the moderate range. Interviewer support is also associated with fewer errors on nonsuggestive questions. Discussion focuses on implications for practice; directions for future research; identifying vulnerable subgroups; and underlying cognitive, social, and emotional mechanisms.

Parental Attachment and Children's Memory for Attachment-Relevant Stories

Despite evidence that parents' attachment is associated with children's memory, less is known about the mechanisms underlying this association or the contexts in which the association is most meaningful. The present study examined whether parents' attachment predicted children's memory for stories about attachment-related topics, whether the cohesiveness of children's stories mediated the association between attachment and memory, and whether the association varied by interview support at retrieval. Five- to 6-year-olds completed attachment-relevant stories while parents provided information about their romantic attachment. Children's stories were coded for cohesiveness. A week later, children's memory for their stories was tested by either a supportive or non-supportive interviewer. When the interview was non-supportive, greater parental avoidance was associated with poorer memory, whereas when the interview was supportive, greater parental avoidance was associated with fewer errors. Findings provide insight into the context under which parents' attachment is most influential in shaping children's memory.

Low-SES Preschool Children's Eyewitness Memory: The Role of Narrative Skill

This study investigated the relation between narrative skill and eyewitness memory in young children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) communities. A total of 176 children aged 3-5 years were interviewed about a conflict event they witnessed. The quality of their narratives about the event and their ability to narrate a story from a picture book were examined in relation to memory of the event. Comprehensive measures of individual differences in vocabulary skill, adaptive language use, and behavioral characteristics were also administered. The results revealed that children who produced longer, more descriptive, and more cohesive narratives about the event recalled more accurate details and made fewer memory errors, independent of their language ability and behavioral characteristics. The quality of story narratives did not make any independent contributions to memory. Child's age was a robust predictor of memory for the event. Implications of the findings for understanding eyewitness memory in low-SES children are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Impact of interviewers' supportive comments and children's reluctance to cooperate during sexual abuse disclosure

In the field of child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure, many studies have been conducted on the impact of interviewers' questioning style, but few have examined the impact of interviewers' supportive comments on children's cooperative and reluctant disclosure of substantive details. This field study used a sample of children ranging from 4 to 13 years of age who have all disclosed CSA. The first objective was to examine if the interviewer's and the child's comments during CSA interviews would vary as a function of the use of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Protocol. The second objective was to identify the strongest correlates of the proportion of details disclosed by the children during forensic interviews. A total of 90 matched NICHD Protocol and non-Protocol interviews done by the same interviewers were audio-taped, transcribed, and coded using verbal subscales. The goal was to explore if differences exist between the interviewers' supportive and non-supportive comments as well as children's cooperative and reluctant statements during investigative interviews conducted prior to or after the NICHD Protocol training. Results of a MANCOVA showed that the use of the NICHD Protocol had no influence on interviewers' and children's demeanors. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis controlling for relevant variables (e.g., child's age and NICHD Protocol) showed that children's reluctance and interviewers' non-support were associated with a lesser proportion of details. Overall, these results indicate that in order to promote detailed disclosure of CSA, interviewers should decrease their non-supportive comments and learn to deal more effectively with children's reluctance during forensic interviews. As such, protocols and training should encourage investigative interviewers to devote more time identifying early signs of children's verbal reluctance and to understand the negative impact of non-supportive comments on the disclosure of substantive details.

Support and reluctance in the pre-substantive phase of alleged child abuse victim investigative interviews: revised versus standard NICHD protocols

Children's unwillingness to report abuse places them at risk for re-victimization, and interviewers who do not respond sensitively to that unwillingness may increase the likelihood that victims will not disclose abuse. Interviewer support and children's reluctance were examined on a turn-by-turn basis using sequential analyses in 199 forensic interviews of 3- to 13-year-olds who alleged maltreatment. Half of the children were interviewed using the Revised Protocol that emphasized rapport-building (RP), the others using the Standard National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Protocol (SP). When using the RP, interviewers provided proportionally more support than when using the SP, but even when using the RP they did not specifically provide support when children expressed reluctance. The RP promoted immediate cooperation when reluctant utterances were met with support, however, suggesting that supportive statements were valuable. The findings enhance our understanding of children's willingness to participate in investigative interviews and the means through which interviewers can foster the comfort and well-being of young witnesses.

Examining the positive effects of rapport building: when and why does rapport building benefit adult eyewitness memory?

Most investigative interviewing protocols recommend building rapport with cooperative adult witnesses to increase the accuracy of their reports. Although a few recent studies support the benefits of rapport building on adult witness recall, no study has examined whether the timing of rapport in relation to post-event misinformation affects recall accuracy, and whether these effects are related to witness anxiety levels throughout the interview. The present study provided two hundred and thirty-three undergraduates with a videotaped mock crime followed by building high or low rapport either before or after they received post-event misinformation. All witnesses were then interviewed about the mock crime. Results indicated that high rapport before misinformation increased the amount of accurate information reported in a subsequent witness interview compared to low rapport. However, these recall benefits were not due to a reduction in anxiety. Theoretical implications and practical recommendations for police interviewing practices are discussed.

'I was just screeching!': comparing child and parent derived measures of distress

Two studies explored relationships between children's (2-13 years old) descriptions of how much they had cried and two other ways of assessing children's distress during injuries and subsequent hospital treatment, one parent-generated and the other child-generated. In the first study, 201 2- to 13-year-old children's descriptions of crying were compared with parental ratings of child distress, and in the second, these two measures plus a Faces Pain Scale were compared for 71 2- to 6-year-olds. Children's self-descriptions of crying were highly similar to parental ratings at all ages, but the Faces Pain Scale had less similarity to other measures, especially for younger preschoolers. Findings suggest that children's self-descriptions of emotional reactions may be a useful tool for assessing children's distress for real-world events with no adult witnesses.

Children's memory for a mild stressor: the role of sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal

Although numerous studies have examined the relations between stress and memory in children, few studies have investigated physiological responses as predictors of children's memory for stressful events. In this study, 4- to 8-year-olds completed laboratory challenges and experienced a fire-alarm incident while their sympathetic and parasympathetic reactions were monitored. Shortly afterward, children's memory of the alarm incident was tested. As children's age and family income increased, memory performance improved. High sympathetic activation during the laboratory challenges was associated with enhanced memory. Also, a trend indicated that, among older children, greater general parasympathetic withdrawal was associated with poorer memory, but among younger children, parasympathetic withdrawal was unrelated to memory. Findings highlight the need to measure both sympathetic and parasympathetic responses when evaluating children's memory for mild stressors and to include a wide age range so that developmental changes in the relations between stress and memory in childhood can be identified.

Theory of mind, inhibitory control, and preschool-age children's suggestibility in different interviewing contexts

The current study examined the relations among 3- to 5-year-olds' theory of mind, inhibitory control, and three measures of suggestibility: yielding to suggestive questions (yield), shifting answers in response to negative feedback (shift), and accuracy in response to misleading questions during a pressured interview about a live event. Theory of mind aided in the prediction of suggestibility about the live event, and inhibitory control was a moderator variable affecting the consistency of children's sensitivity to social pressure across situations. The findings indicate that theory of mind and inhibitory control predict children's suggestibility about a live event above and beyond yield, shift, and age and that the construct validity of shift may improve as children's inhibitory control develops.