Adults’ perceptions of children’s referentially ambiguous responses

dc.contributor.authorWylie, B.E., Lyon, T.D., O’Connor, A.M., Lapytskaia, C., & Evans, A.D.
dc.date.accessioned2018-11-02T19:10:02Z
dc.date.available2018-11-02T19:10:02Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractThe present study examined adults’ (N = 295) interpretations of child witnesses’ referentially ambiguous “yes” and “no” responses to “Do You Know/Remember (DYK/R) if/whether” questions (e.g., “Do you know if it was blue?”). Participants were presented with transcripts from child sexual abuse cases modified based on question format (DYK/R vs. Direct) and child response type (Yes, No, I don’t know) in a between subjects design. We assessed whether adults recognized that children’s ambiguous responses were unclear, and if not, how they were interpreting children’s responses compared to the control (Direct) conditions. More specifically, we assessed whether adults interpreted children’s responses as answering the explicit (e.g., “No, I don’t remember”) or implicit (e.g., “No, it wasn’t blue”) question. Participants virtually never recognized ambiguous responses as unclear, and their interpretations were influenced by the attorney's question and child’s response type. In sum, these results suggest that DYK/R questions often lead to misinterpretation, resulting in miscommunication.en_US
dc.identifier.citationWylie, B.E., Lyon, T.D., O’Connor, A.M., Lapytskaia, C., & Evans, A.D. (in press). Adults’ perceptions of children’s referentially ambiguous responses. Psychology, Crime, & Law.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://works.bepress.com/thomaslyon/151/
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/4029
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherPsychology, Crime, & Lawen_US
dc.subjectchild witnessen_US
dc.subjectjuryen_US
dc.subjectresponse interpretationen_US
dc.subjectreferential ambiguityen_US
dc.subjecttestimonyen_US
dc.titleAdults’ perceptions of children’s referentially ambiguous responsesen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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