Effect of Event Context on Children's Recall of Non-Experienced Events Across Multiple Interviews

• NCJ Number: 209686
• Journal: Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2005 Pages: 83-101
• Author(s): Carolyn H. Jones; Martine B. Powell
• Date Published: February 2005
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study explored whether the willingness of young children to provide information about a false (non-experienced) activity differed on the basis of whether the activity was allegedly embedded within either a specific event or a broad (non-specified) time frame.

Abstract

Previous research regarding child eyewitness memory has focused extensively on factors that affect young children’s suggestibility. Research attention has especially concentrated on how much influence an interviewer’s suggestion has on young children. The current study extends this line of research by examining the effect that context might have on the suggestibility of young children to interviewer prompting. Participants were 99 children aged 4 to 5 years who either participated in a staged event that consisted of 2 activities or did not participate in a staged event. One to 2 days following the event, all children were provided with false suggestions about a non-experienced activity having either high or low plausibility; the non-experienced activity was either embedded within the activities of staged event or were not embedded within a specific event. Approximately 8, 15, and 22 days following the event, children were asked to report on the activities they participated in and were presented with a series of cued-recall questions. Results indicated no influence of event context on the rate at which children were willing to report on non-experienced activities. Some differences due to context did emerge when children were willing to report on non-experienced events however. Children who participated in the staged event reported fewer details of the non-experienced activity yet also made fewer errors when reporting the non-experienced activity than did children who did not participate in the staged event. The findings thus suggest that by embedding a non-experienced activity within a specified event, children’s recall of that non-experienced activity may be enhanced. Future research should focus on the suggestibility of older age groups. Tables, references