Citation

Gobbo C. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 2000; 14(2): 163-182.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(200003/04)14:2<163::AID-ACP630>3.0.CO;2-H

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In two experiments children aged between 4 and 5 years and 7 and 8 years, respectively, participated in a real-life event and were exposed to misleading questions immediately afterwards. The effects of variables relating to both the presentation of the misinformation and to the assessment of suggestibility were examined both immediately and following delays of 1 week (Experiment 1) or both 1 week and 1 month (Experiment 2). Older children were less suggestible than younger. Children were less suggestible when suggestibility was assessed in recall questions rather than misleading questions, less suggestible when information was central rather than peripheral and when the misinformation contradicted rather than supplemented the original event, and less suggestible over time in the absence of further suggestions. Providing cues had a small effect in enhancing resistance to the misinformation, but only when children were tested immediately. Embedding suggestions in a narrative context and repeating suggestions within a session led to greater suggestibility for both age groups, and repeating suggestions following a 1-month delay had a particularly marked effect for the younger children. These findings are consistent with the view that suggestibility effects depend on the strength of the memory trace for the original information as well as that for the suggestion. How suggestibility is assessed is, however, also important and children's responses to misleading questions may not reflect their memory for the original event. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en