Individual differences in children’s suggestibility: a comparison between intellectually disabled and mainstream samples

Effects of Guiding Ground Rules and Individual Differences on the Accuracy of Children's Free Recall and Suggestibility

This research examines how the presence or absence of ground rules and children's temperamental tendencies affect children's free recall accuracy and suggestibility. Participating children showed richer free recall with open-ended questions and displayed greater resistance to suggestive questions when provided ground rules during the interview. In addition, children's recall accuracy varied based on their prosocial orientation: the presence or absence of ground rules influenced memory accuracy more in children with a low prosocial orientation than in those with a high prosocial orientation. These results demonstrate the importance of ground rules for obtaining reliable statements from children during investigative interviews. Findings further suggest that children can provide more detailed information when temperamental characteristics (e.g. prosocial tendencies) are considered.

Interrogative suggestibility in the elderly

Interrogative suggestibility (IS) describes the extent to which an individual behavioral response is affected by messages communicated during formal questioning within a closed social interaction. The present study aimed at improving knowledge about IS in the elderly (aged 65 years and older), in particular about its association with both emotive/affective and cognitive variables. The sample (N = 172) was divided into three groups on the basis of age: late adult (aged 55-64, N = 59), young elderly (aged 65-74, N = 63), and elderly (aged 75 and older, N = 50). Cognitive (i.e., Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-2, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test), emotive/affective (i.e., Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Penn State Worry Questionnaire) and suggestibility measures (i.e., Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale-2) were administered. In order to identify differences and associations between groups in IS, cognitive and emotive/affective variables, ANOVAs tests and Pearson's correlations were run. Furthermore, moderation analyses and hierarchical regression were set to determine whether age, cognitive and emotive/affective variables predicted IS components (i.e., Yield and Shift). Finally, machine learning models were developed to highlight the best strategy for classifying elderly subjects with high suggestibility. The results corroborated the significant link between IS and age, showing that elderly participants had the worst performance on all suggestibility indexes. Age was also the most important predictor of both Yield and Shift. Results also confirmed the important role of non-verbal intelligence and memory impairment in explaining IS dimensions, showing that these associations were stronger in young elderly and elderly groups. Implications about interrogative procedures with older adults were discussed.

Suggestibility and false memories in relation to intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder: a meta-analytic review

BACKGROUND

A systematic literature review was conducted to evaluate previous research that examined intellectual disability (ID) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in relation to memory distortions (i.e. suggestibility and false memories). There were two goals for the current study; the first goal was to identify significant trends in past literature that fulfilled previously established selection criteria. The second goal was to establish reliability and effect sizes for suggestibility and false memory for samples with diagnoses of ID or ASD.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Articles that were selected for inclusion in the current study were required to have a clinically diagnosed sample, as well as a non-clinical control group. Studies were also required to have a post-hoc power score higher than .30 to prevent the effects of underpowered studies and limit the potential for publication bias. Selected studies were also required to have provided pertinent information required to complete the analyses (e.g. means, standard deviations, p-values, or correlation coefficients). Any study that did not provide the required information was excluded.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Two empirical Bayes omnibus analyses revealed a significant effect for participants diagnosed with ID (z = 6.10, p < .001), which supported the researchers' hypothesis. The results indicated increased susceptibility toward memory suggestibility and false memories when compared with the general population. However, the results of the analyses did not support the researchers' hypothesis regarding participants diagnosed with ASD. The analyses indicated that participants diagnosed with ASD displayed decreased suggestibility and were less likely to develop false memories (z = -2.37, p = 0.018).

Suggestibility in neglected children: The influence of intelligence, language, and social skills

We administered the GSS-2, a standardised measure of suggestibility, to 5- to 12-year-old children to ascertain whether neglected children's responses to leading questions distinguish them from those of their non-neglected counterparts. Neglected children (n = 75) were more likely than an age-matched sample of non-neglected children (n = 75) to yield to leading questions, despite no difference in their ability to recall the test stimuli. Subsequent collection of individual difference data from the neglected sample revealed that this effect could not be attributed to intelligence, language ability, problem behaviours, age at onset of neglect, or time spent in out-of-home care. With respect to social skill, however, suggestibility was positively correlated with communicative skill, and marginally positively correlated with assertion and engagement. While on the surface our social skills findings seem counter-intuitive, it is possible that maltreated children with relative strengths in these areas have learned to comply with adults in their environment as a way to protect themselves or even foster belonging. Our data, while preliminary, raise interesting questions about whether targeted interventions could help these children to more actively participate in decisions about their lives.

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.

Low-SES children's eyewitness memory: the effects of verbal labels and vocabulary skills

This study examined the effects of the verbal labels procedure and vocabulary skills on low-socioeconomic status (SES) preschool children's eyewitness memory. Children (N = 176) aged 3-5 years witnessed a conflict event and were then questioned about it in either a standard or a verbal labels interview. Findings revealed that children with higher rather than lower vocabulary skills produced more complete and accurate memories. Children who were given the verbal labels interview recalled more information, which included both correct and incorrect details. Overall, the verbal labels procedure did not improve children's performance on direct questions, but children with low vocabulary skills answered direct questions more accurately if they were given the verbal labels interview than when they were not. Implications of the findings for memory performance of low-SES children are discussed.

Emotional false memories in children with learning disabilities

Research has shown that children with learning disabilities (LD) are less prone to evince associative illusions of memory as a result of impairments in their ability to engage in semantic processing. However, it is unclear whether this observation is true for scripted life events, especially if they include emotional content, or across a broad spectrum of learning disabilities. The present study addressed these issues by assessing recognition memory for script-like information in children with nonverbal learning disability (NLD), children with dyslexia, and typically developing children (N=51). Participants viewed photographs about 8 common events (e.g., family dinner), and embedded in each episode was either a negative or a neutral consequence of an unseen action. Children's memory was then tested on a yes/no recognition task that included old and new photographs. Results showed that the three groups performed similarly in recognizing target photographs, but exhibited differences in memory errors. Compared to other groups, children with NLD were more likely to falsely recognize photographs that depicted an unseen cause of an emotional seen event and associated more "Remember" responses to these errors. Children with dyslexia were equally likely to falsely recognize both unseen causes of seen photographs and photographs generally consistent with the script, whereas the other participant groups were more likely to falsely recognize unseen causes rather than script-consistent distractors. Results are interpreted in terms of mechanisms underlying false memories' formation in different clinical populations of children with LD.

Jurors' perceptions of juvenile defendants: the influence of intellectual disability, abuse history, and confession evidence

Understanding jurors' perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors' perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile's crime was motivated by self-defense against the abuser. Jurors used disability as a mitigating factor, making more lenient judgments for a disabled than a nondisabled juvenile. Jurors also completely discounted a coerced confession for a disabled juvenile, but not for a nondisabled juvenile. In fact, compared with when it was portrayed as voluntary, jurors generally discounted a juvenile's coerced confession. Implications for public policy and directions for future research are discussed.

The effect of intellectual disability on the adherence of child witnesses to a "story grammar" framework

BACKGROUND

This study examined the ability of 78 children (aged 9-12 years) with an intellectual disability (ID) to provide a narrative account of a staged event they had participated in four days earlier.

METHOD

The children were interviewed using open-ended questions. The quality of their responses (using a story grammar framework) was compared with that of two control groups: mainstream children matched for mental and chronological age.

RESULTS

While the children with an ID and those matched for mental age provided narratives of similar length and used similar proportions of each story grammar element, the ID group was less likely than both control groups to provide a narrative account at all. Among those children with an ID who did provide a narrative account, their accounts included proportionately fewer story grammar elements than those of both control groups.

CONCLUSION

Children with an ID are disadvantaged as witnesses with respect to their ability to provide a detailed and coherent narrative account of events under optimal investigative interviewing conditions.

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

This study examined 5- and 6-year-olds' suggestibility and interviewer demeanor as joint predictors of their memory for a novel experience. Session 1 consisted of children taking part in a novel laboratory event. Session 2 took place after approximately a 1-week delay and consisted of children completing both a memory test concerning what happened during the prior event and the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (VSSC). During the second session, the interviewer behaved either supportively or nonsupportively. Greater acquiescence on the VSSC was associated with fewer correct responses to misleading questions about the laboratory event in the supportive and nonsupportive conditions and with more errors in response to specific questions in the nonsupportive condition. Results indicate that individual differences in children's suggestibility are related to the accuracy of their memory for separate events, although some of these relations may vary depending on the context in which children are interviewed.