Reducing Child Witnesses' False Reports of Misinformation from Parents

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology Vol. 81; no. 2; pp. 117 - 140
• Main Authors: Poole, Debra Ann, Lindsay, D.Stephen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01-02-2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Age Differences; Age Factors; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Child, Preschool; Children; children's memory; Crime - legislation & jurisprudence; Crime - psychology; Developmental psychology; Developmental Stages; Female; free recall; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Memory; Mental Recall; Parents; Parents - psychology; Performance Factors; preschool-age children; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; questioning; Questions; Recall (Psychology); Retention (Psychology); school-age children; source monitoring; Suggestibility; Suggestion; Witnesses; children's memory; free recall; questioning; preschool-age children; suggestibility; source monitoring; school-age children; witnesses; Human; Preschool age; Testimony; Free recall; Suggestibility; Memory; Cognition; False memory; Experimental study; Psychological training; School age; Information source; Child
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1006/jecp.2001.2648

This study explored whether a source-monitoring training (SMT) procedure, in which children distinguished between events they recently witnessed versus events they only heard described, would help 3- to 8-year-olds to report only experienced events during a target interview. Children (N = 132) who witnessed science demonstrations and subsequently heard their parents describe nonexperienced events received SMT before or after a forensic-style interview. SMT reduced the number of false reports that 7- and 8-year-old children reported in response to direct questions but had no impact on the performance of younger children. Combined with earlier results, these data suggest a transition between 3 and 8 years of age in the strategic use of source-monitoring information to support verbal reports, such that only 7- and 8-year-olds generalize training to a difficult memory task that does not include mention of specific alternative sources.