Suggestibility of the child witness: a historical review and synthesis

Attorneys' Questions About Time in Criminal Cases of Alleged Child Sexual Abuse

In cases of alleged child sexual abuse, information about the timing of events is often needed. However, published developmental laboratory research has demonstrated that children struggle to provide accurate and reliable testimony about time and there is currently a lack of field research examining how attorneys actually question child witnesses about time in court. The current study analyzed 130 trial transcripts from cases of alleged child sexual abuse containing a child witness between the ages of 5-17 years old to determine the frequency, style, and content of attorneys' questions and child responses about time. We found that attorneys primarily ask closed-ended temporal location questions (i.e., asking when an event took place using a temporal construct such as day, month, and year) to child witnesses. Additionally, children, of all ages, rarely said "I don't know" or expressed uncertainty in response to temporal questions. These findings are concerning as researchers find that children tend to struggle with temporally locating past events.

The Comparative Productivity of the Birthday Narrative in 6- to 11-year-Old Maltreated Children

We asked 111 6- to 11-year-old maltreated children to tell "everything that happened" on their last birthday, the last time they did something they liked to do outside, and yesterday. All children produced details in response to the like to do and yesterday narratives, compared to 98% of children in response to the birthday narrative. Questions about yesterday were more likely to elicit productive responses (93%) than questions about the child's birthday (90%) or things they liked to do (88%). Older children produced the most details in response to questions about yesterday, and older children's birthday narratives were more productive than those about favorite activities. Narratives about children's birthday and yesterday produced comparable percentages of negative details (15%), whereas 32% of children mentioned something negative when discussing a favorite activity. The results suggest that although children find yesterday easier to recall than their last birthday, the birthday narrative is a productive tool for encouraging children to practice recalling more remote events, preparing them for abuse disclosures.

Children's Elaborated Responses to Yes-No Questions in Forensic Interviews About Sexual Abuse

Children tend to answer yes-no questions with unelaborated "yes" and "no" responses, but the types of details likely omitted from unelaborated answers have not been explored. This study examined 379 4- to 12-year-olds' answers to yes-no questions in forensic interviews about CSA (N = 11,187), focusing on age differences in elaborated responses. As expected, older children elaborated more frequently than younger children. Our novel categorization of elaboration types revealed that although there were no age differences in children's use of nominal corrections (correcting a label), or in emphatic negations (giving forceful denials), older children were more likely to give narrative elaborations (providing additional narrative information), wh-elaborations (answering implicit wh-questions), and qualified elaborations (avoiding potentially misleading implications of unelaborated "yes" and "no" responses). The results suggest that children's developing understanding of the implied meaning of questions and responses helps to explain age differences in elaborative responses to yes-no questions.

Discernment of Children's True and False Memory Reports: Police Officers and Laypersons

Adults' ability to accurately evaluate children's statements can have far-reaching consequences within the legal system. This study examined the evaluations of police officers ("experts") and laypersons ("nonexperts") when presented with videotaped interviews of children aged 3 and 5 years who provided either true or false reports or denials. Participants were drawn from several counties in the eastern United States. Children's interview statements fell within four statement types: accurate reports, false reports, accurate denials, and false denials. Both groups of participants displayed overbelief in false denials. Several control variables predicted accuracy, including children's age and children's race. A significant interaction emerged: Experts (vs. nonexperts) had greater odds of being accurate when judging false reports (vs. false denials). These findings highlight the challenges adults face when distinguishing between various types of children's statements. The results have important implications for legal contexts, emphasizing that fact finders need to be mindful of the risks associated with both overaccepting false denials and accepting false reports.

Testimony and observation of statistical evidence interact in adults' and children's category-based induction

Hearing generic or other kind-relevant claims can influence the use of information from direct observations in category learning. In the current study, we ask how both adults and children integrate their observations with testimony when learning about the causal property of a novel category. Participants were randomly assigned to hear one of four types of testimony: generic, quantified "all", specific, or only labels. In Study 1, adults (N = 1249) then observed that some proportion of objects (10%-100%) possessed a causal property. In Study 2, children (N = 123, Mage = 5.06 years, SD = 0.61 years, range 4.01-5.99 years) observed a sample where 30% of the objects had the causal property. Generic and quantified "all" claims led both adults and children to generalize the causal property beyond what was observed. Adults and children diverged, however, in their overall trust in testimony that could be verified by observations: adults were more skeptical of inaccurate quantified claims, whereas children were more accepting. Additional memory probes suggest that children's trust in unverified claims may have been due to misremembering what they saw in favor of what they heard. The current findings demonstrate that both child and adult learners integrate information from both sources, offering insights into the mechanisms by which language frames first-hand experience.

Retracted memories in the general population: are there differences between eastern and western countries?

The main purpose of the current studies was to examine retracted experiences in the general population from various cultural backgrounds. More specifically, in two studies, we examined the details of memory retraction experiences, the reasons for retraction, and the outcomes of retraction in participants from China and other countries, mainly the United States of America. It was found that memory retraction experiences appeared to be quite common. In the sample of Chinese participants (Study 1: N = 1380), 50.58% reported at least one such an experience, whereas in respondents from other countries (Study 2; N = 425), a significantly lower but still substantial prevalence rate of 35% was found. In general, the retracted memories predominantly involved positive events and some respondents experienced pressure during the withdrawal. Social feedback and event plausibility were the two main reasons for the withdrawal. Compared to recollection scores, belief scores decreased significantly after withdrawal, and some respondents even formed nonbelieved memories. After retracting the memories, most respondents felt they gained benefits (e.g., they had resolved a psychological problem that had bothered them for years). These studies give us a more general understanding of retracted memory experiences in the general population.

Assessment of Gender Diverse Children: Incorporating the Standard of Care 8th Edition

This article provides an overview of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) Standard of Care 8th edition (SOC8) chapter on transgender and gender diverse (TGD) prepubescent children (see Scott Leibowitz's article, "Assessment of Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents: Incorporating the Standard of Care 8th Edition," in this issue). This is the first WPATH SOC chapter in history, specifically devoted to children, acknowledging that the developmental needs and experiences of these youth can be distinguished from those of TGD adolescents. The child standards are based on the consensus of a range of expert authors and a broader consensus derived from a Delphi process involving the entire international interdisciplinary SOC8 authorship. The child SOC draw upon general developmental literature and employ an ecological framework to establish practice recommendations, including an assessment framework which engages family members and community outreach as warranted. The primary authors of the Child chapter of the SOC 8 include the following: Amy Tishelman, Ph.D. (lead author); Dianne Berg, Ph.D., Laura Edwards-Leeper, Ph.D., Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D.; Susie Green, Aron Janssen, M.D., Jiska Ristori, Psy.D., Thomas Steensma, Ph.D., and John Strang, Psy.

Brain stimulation and elicited memories

BACKGROUND

Since the late 1930s, electric brain stimulation (EBS) in awake patients has been known to occasionally elicit patient descriptions of a form of memory flashbacks, known as experiential phenomena. One understanding of these sensations are as caused by an augmentation of the capacity for memory retrieval. However, an alternative hypothesis holds that memory flashbacks during EBS are "synthetic constructions" in the form of mental events, falsely interpreted as memories.

METHODS

A critical narrative review is used to discuss the false memory hypothesis in relation to the current empirical literature and source attribution theory.

RESULTS

EBS as well as situational demands in the form of interaction between patient and neurosurgeon may both lead to the creation of mental events and influence their interpretation in a way that may create false memories. The false memory hypothesis provides a potential explanation for several apparent inconsistencies in the current literature such as (a) the fragmented nature of experiential reports, (b) the ability of EBS to induce memory retrieval errors in controlled studies, (c) that Penfield's elicitations of experiential phenomena are so rarely replicated in the modern era, and (d) the limited utility of techniques that elicit experiential phenomena in the treatment of memory disorders.

CONCLUSIONS

The hypothesis that experiential phenomena may largely be "synthetic constructions" deserves serious consideration by neurosurgeons.

Normative developmental vs. reverse developmental trends in memory distortion: a framework to investigate the impact of internal and external influences on memory and their relevance to legal decisions

There are two opposing positions regarding the development of memory: the normative developmental position, and the reverse developmental position. The normative position, which has long been the default presupposition, supports the notion that susceptibility to memory distortion, including false memories, decreases with age. In contrast, the concept of "developmental reversals" supports the notion that susceptibility to memory distortion and false memories increases with age. Each perspective finds support from existing theories as well as from research on endogenous and exogenous sources of influence. In a legal context, having an accurate understanding of the developmental course of false memory can contribute on the one hand to mitigating wrongful convictions and, on the other hand, to appreciating the accuracy of children's statements when warranted. This review aims to integrate the existing literature regarding these seemingly opposite developmental courses and construct a framework outlining the conditions under which we may observe one age trend over the other. This entails an examination of the paradigms that have been invoked to support these competing positions, specifically developmental responses to internal vs. external sources of distortion.

Children's suggestibility for neutral arbitrary actions in the context of norm violations

This study investigated children's false memories for neutral arbitrary actions. Five- to six-year-olds (N = 32) were taught four arbitrary actions, each following specific rules. The children then watched a televised adult performing eight actions: the four familiar actions while violating one aspect of each rule script and four unfamiliar actions. Suggestive and non-suggestive questions about all witnessed actions were asked, followed by forced-choice test questions to measure the false memory effect. The likelihood of forming false memories was higher in the suggestive condition than in the non-suggestive condition. There was no effect of previously acquired knowledge about the rules of the actions and no interaction between rule knowledge and suggestion. The results are discussed in light of previous findings in related fields of false memory research.

AI avatar tells you what happened: The first test of using AI-operated children in simulated interviews to train investigative interviewers

Previous research has shown that simulated child sexual abuse (CSA) interview training using avatars paired with feedback and modeling improves interview quality. However, to make this approach scalable, the classification of interviewer questions needs to be automated. We tested an automated question classification system for these avatar interviews while also providing automated interventions (feedback and modeling) to improve interview quality. Forty-two professionals conducted two simulated CSA interviews online and were randomly provided with no intervention, feedback, or modeling after the first interview. Feedback consisted of the outcome of the alleged case and comments on the quality of the interviewer's questions. Modeling consisted of learning points and videos illustrating good and bad questioning methods. The total percentage of agreement in question coding between human operators and the automated classification was 72% for the main categories (recommended vs. not recommended) and 52% when 11 subcategories were considered. The intervention groups improved from first to second interview while this was not the case in the no intervention group (intervention x time: p = 0.007, ηp 2 = 0.28). Automated question classification worked well for classifying the interviewers' questions allowing interventions to improve interview quality.

Memory Accuracy After 20 Years for Interviews About Child Maltreatment

When adults allege childhood victimization, their long-term memory comes under scrutiny. This scrutiny can extend to the adults' memory of childhood interviews. The concerns raise important theoretical and applied issues regarding memory for long-past discussions of child maltreatment and trauma. In this longitudinal study, 104 adults, who as children (ages 3-15 years) were interviewed in child maltreatment investigations (Time 1), were questioned 20 years later (Time 2) about the Time 1 interviews. Verbatim documentation from Time 1 permitted scoring of memory accuracy. A subset of the participants (36%) reported no memory for the Time 1 interviews. Of the 64% who remembered being interviewed at Time 1, those who had been adolescents at Time 1 remembered the forensic interview discussion about abuse incidents better than discussion about general psychological issues. Adult trauma symptoms were associated with more accurate memory for interview content that directly concerned abuse experiences but not for non-abuse-specific information. Findings indicate that the veracity of adults' long-term memory for clinical/forensic conversations about childhood maltreatment depends on age at interview, interview content, and traumatization factors. Implications are discussed.

Interviewing in virtual environments: Towards understanding the impact of rapport-building behaviours and retrieval context on eyewitness memory

Given the complexities of episodic memory and necessarily social nature of in-person face-to-face interviews, theoretical and evidence-based techniques for collecting episodic information from witnesses, victims, and survivors champion rapport-building. Rapport is believed to reduce some of the social demands of recalling an experienced event in an interview context, potentially increasing cognitive capacity for remembering. Cognitive and social benefits have also emerged in remote interview contexts with reduced anxiety and social pressure contributing to improved performance. Here, we investigated episodic memory in mock-eyewitness interviews conducted in virtual environments (VE) and in-person face-to-face (FtF), where rapport-building behaviours were either present or absent. Main effects revealed when rapport was present and where interviews were conducted in a VE participants recalled more correct event information, made fewer errors and were more accurate. Moreover, participants in the VE plus rapport-building present condition outperformed participants in all other conditions. Feedback indicated both rapport and environment were important for reducing the social demands of a recall interview, towards supporting effortful remembering. Our results add to the emerging literature on the utility of virtual environments as interview spaces and lend further support to the importance of prosocial behaviours in applied contexts.

A court ruled case on therapy-induced false memories

We report on a unique Italian criminal case in which a court ruled that a therapist implanted false memories of abuse in a young girl. Using therapeutic excerpts, we show that the therapist used a multitude of problematic interventions that are all linked to false memory creation. Specifically, an analysis of the therapeutic excerpts showed that across many sessions, the therapist asked highly suggestive questions to the girl, implying that she was abused by her father. In addition, the girl underwent EMDR techniques that have been associated with memory undermining effects. Our analyses showed that although before treatment the girl did not have any recollection of being abused by her father, she gradually started to remember the abuse and identified the father as her abuser during the therapeutic sessions. Our case report clearly shows the danger of suggestive pressure in a therapeutic context causing patients to form false memories of abuse and supports the need to prevent the therapeutic practice of suggestive techniques.

Predictors of mass psychogenic illness in a junior secondary school in rural Botswana: A case control study

Background

In March 2019, students at Lempu Secondary School in Kweneng District, Botswana displayed symptoms including headache, abnormal leg movements and difficulty walking. Within days, 133 students were admitted to Scottish Livingstone Hospital where mass psychogenic illness (MPI) was diagnosed.

Aim

To identify predictors of this illness.

Setting

Kweneng West District, Botswana.

Methods

This was a case control study using interviewer-administered questionnaires. Cases were students who displayed MPI symptoms from the 2nd of March to the time of the interviews or who were admitted with MPI diagnosis. Analysis was restricted to female students. Logistic regression was used to generate odds ratios. A p value of < 0.05 was considered to demonstrate significant association between variables.

Results

Interviews were conducted with 142 cases and 202 controls. The median age was 15 years. Most of the cases (95.8%) were boarding girls. Residence in school campus (AOR 13.2), history of evaluation by psychologist and/or social worker (AOR 2.6), history of traumatic events (AOR 1.8), contact with sick peers (AOR 2.3) and contact with spiritual healer (AOR 2.0) were independent predictors of MPI. Additionally, perception of adequate security in the dormitories (AOR 0.3) and perception of poor lighting (AOR 6.8) were significant predictors of MPI amongst boarding girls.

Conclusion

The outbreak in Lempu Community Junior Secondary School (CJSS) was typical of mass psychogenic illness affecting mainly boarding girls and was associated with psychological and environmental risk factors. Changing the boarding environment and continuous psychological support are key to preventing future outbreaks. Interventions should also target the identified risk factors.

The effect of feedback and recollection rejection instructions on the development of memory monitoring and accuracy

Recollection rejection (a form of memory monitoring) involves rejecting false details on the basis of remembering true details (recall to reject), thereby increasing memory accuracy. This study examined how recollection rejection instructions and feedback affect memory accuracy and false recognition in 5-year-olds, 6- and 7-year-olds, 8- and 9-year-olds, and adults. Participants (N = 336) completed three study-test phases. Instructions and item-level feedback were manipulated during the first two phases, with the third phase including a test containing no instructions or feedback to evaluate learning effects. As predicted, in the younger children, as compared with the older children and adults, we found reduced accuracy scores (hits to studied items minus false alarms to related lures), reduced recollection rejection to related lures, and increased false recognition scores. We also found that, in the third phase, prior feedback reduced false recognition scores, potentially by improving monitoring, and typical developmental differences in false recognition were eliminated. However, there were mixed findings of instructions and feedback, and in some conditions these interventions harmed memory. These findings provide initial evidence that combining instructions and feedback with repeated task practice may improve monitoring effectiveness, but additional work is needed on how these factors improve and sometimes harm performance in young children.

The concept of lying, moral reasoning and children's willingness to lie at the request of an adult

This research aims to understand how children conceptualise lying and how they associate it with moral reasoning within a narrative that contains everyday moral transgressions. This study also explores whether children are willing to lie when they are asked to do so by close adults, such as mothers, fathers and teachers, even after declaring that lying is wrong. We interviewed children (N = 146) from first to fourth grade on these themes, and discovered a developmental trend in the concept of lying, which is associated with other moral reasoning dimensions. Most children could define lying in a reasonable and accurate manner, and considered it inappropriate behaviour, but half admitted to lying after a close adult requested it.

Lie for Me: Developmental Trends in Acquiescing to a Blatantly False Statement

A pair of studies demonstrates that simply asking children to make a blatantly false accusation in the guise of helping others can result in both immediate and long-term false claims. In the pilot study, the initial willingness to make a blatantly false statement was associated with some children making false statements a week later despite being told that the first interviewer had made mistakes during the initial interview. On a positive note, the majority of participants accurately stated that they did not have first-hand knowledge of their accusation's accuracy. Across both studies, the rate of false accusation rates was high. The main experiment demonstrated that children who were young, possessed the lowest verbal intelligence or who were from the lowest SES homes made the most accusations. These findings illustrate not only the dangers of encouraging children to make false statements, but the ease and durability of making such false statements.

Recall Accuracy in Children: Age vs. Conceptual Thinking

The aim of this study was to replicate a previous experiment using a different stimulus event. The present study examined the relationship between age, development of conceptual thinking, and responses to free recall, suggestive and specific option-posing questions in children and adults. Sixty-three children (aged 7–14) and 30 adults took part in an experiment in which they first participated in a live staged event, then, a week later, were interviewed about the event and tested using the Word Meaning Structure Test. Age and level of conceptual thinking were positively correlated in children. Compared to age, conceptual thinking ability better predicted children's accurate free recall and inaccurate responses to specific option-posing questions, but not inaccurate responses to suggestive questions.

The use and impact of repeated questions in diagnostic child abuse assessment interviews

There is limited research regarding the use of repeated questions and the subsequent response from children in real-world forensic contexts. We analysed 71 transcripts of diagnostic assessments in which 3- to 6-year-olds were assessed for suspected abuse experiences. On average, 6% of interviewer questions were repeated, and 47% of the repeated questions were abuse-related. The majority (65%) of the repeated questions were directive, but 33% of the repeated questions contained implicit assumptions. Implicit assumption questions were more likely to be abuse-related. Interviewers repeated questions when the child failed to answer due to playing (31%), for no apparent reason (26%) or for clarification purposes (29%). Children most commonly responded to repeat questions by providing new information (64%), not responding at all (19%) or repeating information (12%). We recommend that interviewers avoid the use of suggestive and repeated questions that contain implicit assumptions in relation to assessment of suspected child abuse.

Factors influencing the perceived credibility of children alleging physical abuse

Adults' assessments of the credibility of children's reports are affected by factors including the frequency of abuse, reporting delays and the child's age. The present study examined whether similar factors affect the perceived credibility of children reporting physical abuse, which is more common than sexual abuse. Two hundred and eight mock jurors read a simulated transcript of a child reporting physical abuse to police and made credibility ratings. Within each transcript, abuse frequency (once, repeated), reporting timing (recent, delayed), police question type (open, closed) and child age (6 or 10 years) were manipulated. The child was considered more credible when the abuse was only experienced once and reported shortly after it occurred, and when prompted with open questions. The child's age did not affect credibility judgments. Current findings support recommendations to prioritise open questions with children and provide evidence for extension of the benefits of open questions to children's credibility.

Is the study of memory unduly preoccupied with its sins?

A broad functional approach is taken to the analysis of human memory. The overall importance of episodic memory, the capacity to remember specific events, is illustrated by the devastating effect that loss of this aspect of memory has on the capacity to cope in the case of densely amnesic patients. Recent applied research has however focussed heavily on factors compromising the reliability of eyewitness testimony in the forensic field and on the creation of false memories. While acknowledging the progress made on this issue, it presents two dangers. The first is practical, the danger of generalising too readily from laboratory-influenced simulations that differ in important ways from the context to which they are applied. This suggests a need for fewer but more realistically representative studies. The second is a broad theoretical issue, that of extending the findings from this important but limited applied area, within which precise detail may be crucial, to the whole of memory, consequently failing to appreciate its many strengths.

Placebo effect in children: the role of expectation and learning

Classical conditioning and expectations are well-known underlying mechanisms of placebo hypoalgesia. Only little is known about their differential effect in adults, however, and even less in children. Previous studies in children evoked placebo hypoalgesia either with expectations alone or in combination with classical conditioning and revealed conflicting results. Furthermore, these studies investigated children of different ages making it even more difficult to draw conclusions. This study tried to disentangle classical conditioning and expectations by investigating them separately. To examine age effects, n = 172 children (6-9, 10-13, and 14-17 years) as well as n = 32 adults (> = 18 years) were tested using a heat pain paradigm investigating the effectiveness of creams some of which were bogusly introduced as analgesic. In addition to subjective pain intensity ratings, peripheral physiological measures were recorded. Results showed a successful induction of placebo hypoalgesia by both mechanisms for pain ratings and heart rate acceleration. Placebo hypoalgesia was particularly pronounced in children younger than 14 years. Furthermore, placebo hypoalgesia was more marked in children whose mothers raised the expectations. It was also stronger in participants who noticed a strong pain reduction during learning trials. These results encourage the use of placebo effect in clinical practice, particularly for younger children. They underline the relevance of an initial pain reduction and encourage the inclusion of parents in treatment.

The combination of feedback and modeling in online simulation training of child sexual abuse interviews improves interview quality in clinical psychologists

BACKGROUND

Previous research has shown the effectiveness of simulation training using avatars paired with feedback in improving child sexual abuse interview quality. However, it has room for improvement.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to determine if the combination of two interventions, feedback and modeling, would further improve interview quality compared to either intervention alone.

PARTICIPANTS

Thirty-two clinical psychologists were randomly assigned to a feedback, modeling, or the combination of feedback and modeling group.

METHODS

The participants conducted five simulated child sexual abuse interviews online while receiving the intervention(s) corresponding to their allocated group. Feedback was provided after each interview and consisted of the outcome of the alleged cases and comments on the quality of the questions asked in the interviews. Modeling was provided after the 1st interview and consisted of learning points and videos illustrating good and bad questioning methods.

RESULTS

The proportion of recommended questions improved over the five interviews when considering all groups combined. The combined intervention (vs. feedback alone) showed a higher proportion of recommended questions from the 2nd interview onward while the difference between the combined intervention and modeling alone and the difference between the modeling alone and feedback alone were mostly not significant. The number of correct details were affected in the same way. No significant differences in the number of incorrect details were found.

CONCLUSIONS

The results show that the combination of feedback and modeling achieves improvement greater than that of feedback alone.

Can suggestions of non-occurrence lead to claims that witnessed events did not happen?

In three experiments, we examined whether general suggestions of non-occurrence -suggestions that experienced events did not occur- would lead participants to claim that events they witnessed never happened. Participants viewed a video depicting the investigation of a child kidnapping case and subsequently were exposed to suggestions of non-occurrence either once (Experiments 1 and 3) or three times (Experiments 2 and 3). The results provided no evidence that single suggestions of non-occurrence influenced participants' memories or belief (Experiments 1 and 3). However, in two experiments (E2 and E3) the results provided clear evidence that repeated elaboration of suggestions of non-occurrence led participants to claim that the events they witnessed never happened. The finding that participants were influenced by repeated, but not single elaboration of suggestions of non-occurrence shows that reflective elaboration processes played an important role in leading participants to disbelieve the events they had witnessed.

Gender Differences in Moral Influences on Adolescents' Eyewitness Identification

In this study, 232 (89 11- to 12-year-olds, 71 13- to 14-year-olds; 72 15- to 16-year-olds) students recruited from grades 6th-11th in an urban public high school participated in a study of eyewitness identification. The focus of this study was on the effects of age, gender and moral orientation on decisional bias and, as a secondary outcome, on accuracy (using signal detection analysis).The primary purpose of this and previous studies in this series is to uncover implicit moral decision-making in decisional bias. In this study the perpetrator, the bystanders and the foil were all females. Prior to completing the eyewitness identification task, participants were given instructions that emphasized either (a) fairness and crime prevention, or (b) neither. These instructions had no discernible effect on accuracy but, as in past studies, younger participants (below the age of 13) had lower decisional criteria, resulting in a higher rate of false alarms/positives. Further, those who judged the transgression as worse had a lower decisional criterion, indicating more false alarms. Females were more accurate than the males in identifying the female perpetrator and scored significantly higher on how bad they would feel if they were the victim than did the males.

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.

Beliefs About Children's Memory and Child Investigative Interviewing Practices: A Survey in Dutch Child Protection Professionals from 'Safe Home'

Knowledge of children’s memory and forensic interviewing skills are crucial in child abuse investigations. Safe Home is the Dutch hotline where both professionals and citizens can report concerns about child abuse or domestic violence. Professionals at Safe Home often serve as first responders to determine the need for a child abuse investigation, protective measures and/or further police investigation. In this study, child protection professionals (N = 158) employed at Safe Home (i.e., behavioral scientists, medical doctors, and social workers) completed an online survey on beliefs about memory functioning and forensic interviewing. In line with earlier studies, we expected to find a lack of knowledge about memory functioning among Safe Home workers. Furthermore, we expected limited use of forensic interviewing methods that have received empirical support. Indeed, we found many professionals endorsed beliefs not in line with current memory research, especially beliefs about repressed and recovered memories. Still, high percentages of professionals also reported memory beliefs related to false memory formation and suggestion that were in line with scientific evidence. Some professionals reported using interviewing methods for which there is no empirical validation. Because child protection professionals are often the first to interview children about allegations of abuse, the current findings identify a need for training in child forensic interviewing, including knowledge of human memory.

"DID YOU EVER FIGHT BACK?": Jurors' Questions to Children Testifying in Criminal Trials About Alleged Sexual Abuse

The current study examined jurors' questions to children in criminal trials assessing children's allegations of sexual abuse, demonstrating a new avenue for studying how jurors think about, respond to, and assess evidence. We used qualitative content analysis to examine jurors' questions to 134, 5- to 17-year-olds alleging sexual abuse in criminal trial testimonies. Five themes emerged: abuse interactions, contextual details of abuse, children's reactions to abuse, children's (delayed) disclosure, and case background details. Jurors often ask about abuse dynamics, the context surrounding abuse, and children's disclosure processes, reflecting common misconceptions about child sexual abuse (CSA), such as whether it is credible to delay disclosure or maintain contact with an alleged perpetrator. This study improves our understanding of how jurors understand and evaluate children's reports of alleged CSA, suggesting that jurors may struggle to understand children's reluctance.

Online Simulation Training of Child Sexual Abuse Interviews With Feedback Improves Interview Quality in Japanese University Students

Although previous research has confirmed the effectiveness of simulated child sexual abuse interviews with feedback, its validation is limited to Western contexts and face-to-face settings. The present study aims to extend this research to non-Western and online/remote training conditions. Thirty-two Japanese undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a control or feedback group. The feedback group conducted a set of six online simulated child sexual abuse interviews while receiving feedback after each interview in an attempt to improve the quality of their questioning style. The feedback consisted of the outcome of the alleged cases and the quality of the questions asked in the interviews. The control group conducted the interviews without feedback. The feedback (vs. control) increased the proportion of recommended questions (first interview: 45%; last interview: 65% vs. first: 43%; last: 42%, respectively) by using fewer not-recommended questions and eliciting fewer incorrect details. Furthermore, only participants in the feedback group (7 out of 17) demonstrated a reliable change in the proportion of recommended questions. The present study explores the efficacy of simulated interview training with avatars in a different cultural setting and in the context of remote administration. The differences between the present study and previous research are discussed in light of cultural and logistical aspects.

Assessing Children's Credibility in Courtroom Investigations of Alleged Child Sexual Abuse: Suggestibility, Plausibility, and Consistency

As children's testimonies of child sexual abuse (CSA) often lack concrete evidence to corroborate a child's claims, attorneys devote a substantial amount of time to establishing a child as credible during the course of a trial. Examining 134 CSA victim testimonies for children aged 5-17 (M = 12.48, SD = 3.34; 90% female), we explored how attorneys assess child credibility through specifically targeting children's suggestibility/honesty, plausibility, and consistency. Results revealed that while prosecutors examine plausibility more often to establish credibility, defense attorneys focus their assessments on suggestibility/honesty and potential inconsistency. However, both attorneys asked many more questions about children's consistency than any other area of potential credibility. Furthermore, while prosecutors ask proportionally more credibility-challenging questions of older children, the defense do not. These results suggest that prosecutors may be missing an opportunity to establish children as honest and consistent and elucidate a need to train attorneys on the implications of children's inconsistencies, suggestibility, and plausible abuse dynamics.

Get real: Orbitofrontal cortex mediates the ability to sense reality in early adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Orbitofrontal reality filtering (ORFi) is a memory mechanism that distinguishes whether a thought is relevant to present reality or not. In adults, it is mediated by the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). This region is still not fully developed in preteenagers, but ORFi is already active from age 7. Here, we probe the neural correlates of ORFi in early adolescents, hypothesizing that OFC mediates the sense of reality in this population.

METHODS

Functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) were acquired in 22 early adolescents during a task composed of two runs: run 1 measuring recognition capacity; run 2 measuring ORFi; each containing two types of images (conditions): distractors (D: images seen for the first time in the current run) and targets (T: images seen for the second time in the current run). Group region of interest (ROI) analysis was performed in a flexible factorial design with two factors (run and condition) using SPM12.

RESULTS

We found significant main effects for the experimental run and condition. The bilateral OFC activation was higher during ORFi than during the first run. Additionally, the OFC was more active while processing distractors than targets.

CONCLUSION

These results confirm, for the first time, the role of OFC in reality filtering in early adolescents.