Children’s Eyewitness Memory - HAYES

Question 1

Methods for studying suggestibility- Lotus 3 stage paradigm

Answer 1

o Event encoding- series of pictures
o Post event suggestion- misleading suggestion
o Memory test

Question 2

Mechanism that produce suggestibility (2)

Answer 2

1. Changes to memory for the event
   o Overwriting of original memory (memory impairment)- Loftus. New memory makes you struggle to remember old one.
   o Retrieval competition
2. Social/demand factors
   o Social demand/authority of the suggested info (zaragoza)
   o Little confidence in themselves

Question 3

For relevant evidence (2)

Answer 3

o Changing the age of questioner

o Modified recognition test

Question 4

Mccloskey and zaragoza modified recognition study

Answer 4

o See red phone, say its pink (still remember it red tho). Stage 3 choose red or yellow. Should be 100% if they remember.
o If overwriting of memory, should not be 100% of red, and some may choose yellow

Question 5

Needle Bruck, Francouer, & Ceci, 1995 Study

Answer 5

o Children with positive feedback (e.g. your shot didnt seem to hurt you) reported less distress and crying than those given neutral instructions
o Repeated suggestions led many children to mistakenly report that an assistant rather than a doctor gave them the injection

Question 6

Forensic implications (5)

Answer 6

1. Children can report witnessed info accurately
2. Suggestibility is a common problem in eyewitness for both adults and child
3. Suggestibility is driven by 2 casual processes: social demand and memory
4. Mere exposure to suggestions means that some aspects of the original memory may be difficult to retrieve
5. Need to take special care in interviewing children below 6 years of age

Question 7

Ineffective techniques (2)

Answer 7

o Hypnosis

1. No evidence of increased accuracy in recall
2. Increase in report of events (both real and imagined
3. Increased suggestibility (it is literally hypnosis lol and makes them more susceptible)
4. Increased real events but also increased imagined events

o Sociodramatic play (getting the child to act it out rather than verbally describe)
1. Does not increase accuracy but may be useful for building rapport

Question 8

Controversial techniques

Answer 8

o Anatomically detailed dolls (very common in sexual abuse)
o Some evidence of increased disclosure using non verbal play w dolls
o Very sensitive to distortion from suggestive questioning
o Concerns about developmental competence at very young children (2-3 yr olds)

Question 9

Cognitive interview w children (4 techniques)

Answer 9

• Geiselman, fisher et al. 1984 for use by adult law enforcement officals. Made for adult witnesses

• Composed of 4 techniques based upon fundamental principles of memory processing
• Context reinstatement -(rmber better in same context)
• Report all -everything that comes into head without filter
• reverse recall- recounts event from beginning to the end, but after that, tell them to go backwards
• Perspective taking- try to identify someone else’s perspective (hard for children)

• increase of up to 35% in the amount of information accurately recalled.

Question 10

TRUE OR FALSE: Cognitive interview was good at increasing general memory accuracy but was unable to undo negative effects of suggestibility

Answer 10

T

Question 11

Overcoming the effects of misleading suggestions- prevention is the best cure (3)

Answer 11

1. The two CI techniques increased children’s free recall
2. The level of recall facilitation was greater for older children
3. The two CI techniques did not reduce children’s susceptibility to misleading suggestions