Detecting Fact from Fallacy in Child and Adult Witness Accounts (From Psychology, Law, and Criminal Justice: International Developments in Research and Practice, P 74-80, 1996, Graham Davies, Sally Lloyd-Bostock, et al., eds. - See NCJ-171507)

• NCJ Number: 171511
• Author(s): M L Alonso-Quecuty
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Walter de Gruyter & Co
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Germany (Unified)

Annotation

The study examined the exact quantity of information provided by child and adult witnesses when they are telling the truth and when they are lying about the same event.

Abstract

In addition, it examined the possible application of the criteria for reality-monitoring to the study of the true and false statements of child and adult witnesses after having observed the simulation of an offense, and evaluated the effect of both types of experimental context (simulation of real facts vs. laboratory) on witness statements. The study formulated the following hypotheses: (1) True statements of adults will contain more accurate information than those of children; (2) True statements of adult witnesses will be differentiated from false ones; (3) The differences in content of the true vs. false statements will be affected by the age of the witnesses; and (4) The differences in content of the true vs. false statements will be affected by the information content. Results demonstrated that the similarity between both types of statements (true vs. false) and both types of memories (real vs. imagined) is greater when the context is real, (high degree of personal involvement), while telling the truth or lying where a video sequence is concerned minimizes the difference between the statements and both types of memories. References