Immediate interviewing increases children's suggestibility in the short term, but not in the long term
Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Legal and Criminological Psychology
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
Description
item.page.type
Article
item.page.format
Keywords
forensic interview, suggestibility, research
Citation
Otgaar, H., Chan, J. C., Calado, B., & La Rooy, D. (2018). Immediate interviewing increases children's suggestibility in the short term, but not in the long term. Legal and Criminological Psychology. Online ahead of print. DOI:10.1111/lcrp.12137