TY - JOUR PY - 2007// TI - Repeated questions, deception, and children's true and false reports of body touch JO - Child maltreatment A1 - Quas, Jodi A. A1 - Davis, E. L. A1 - Goodman, Gail S. A1 - Myers, J. E. SP - 60 EP - 67 VL - 12 IS - 1 N2 - Four- to 7-year-olds' ability to answer repeated questions about body touch either honestly or dishonestly was examined. Children experienced a play event, during which one third of the children were touched innocuously. Two weeks later, they returned for a memory interview. Some children who had not been touched were instructed to lie during the interview and say that they had been touched. Children so instructed were consistent in maintaining the lie but performed poorly when answering repeated questions unrelated to the lie. Children who were not touched and told the truth were accurate when answering repeated questions. Of note, children who had been touched and told the truth were the most inconsistent. Results call into question the common assumption that consistency is a useful indicator of veracity in children's eyewitness accounts.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1077-5595 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077559506296141 ID - ref1 ER -