Campus Units
Psychology
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Accepted Manuscript
Publication Date
8-3-2018
Journal or Book Title
Legal and Criminological Psychology
DOI
10.1111/lcrp.12137
Abstract
Purpose Children sometimes receive misinformation after being formally interviewed about their experiences in cases of suspected abuse. Following decades of research, many guidelines have been produced for interviewers so they can obtain reliable statements in children, like, for example, the NICHD protocol. One might expect that completing an early interview following research‐based guidelines might guard against the incorporation of misinformation encountered later. The goal of the current experiments was to examine whether following research‐based guidelines such as the NICHD protocol might protect child witnesses against follow‐up ‘misinformation’ or make them more vulnerable to misinformation. This increased vulnerability to misinformation has been referred to as retrieval‐enhanced suggestibility.
Methods In two experiments, children viewed a video and half of them were interviewed using the NICHD protocol, while the other half were not interviewed. The children received misinformation and a final memory test either immediately after being interviewed (Experiment 1) or 1 week later (Experiment 2).
Results Retrieval‐enhanced suggestibility was observed when misinformation was presented immediately but not when it was provided after 1 week.
Conclusions The current experiments indicate that a well‐established interview protocol can, under some circumstances, amplify levels of suggestibility in children.
Copyright Owner
The British Psychological Society
Copyright Date
2018
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Otgaar, Henry; Chan, Jason C.K.; Calado, Bruna; and La Rooy, David, "Immediate interviewing increases children's suggestibility in the short term, but not in the long term" (2018). Psychology Publications. 51.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/psychology_pubs/51
Comments
This article is published as H. Otgaar, J.C.K.Chan, B. Calado, D. La Rooy; Immediate interviewing increases children's suggestibility in the short term, but not in the long term. Legal and Criminological Psychology; 2018. DOI: 10.1111/lcrp.12137. Posted with permission.