1.4 Suggestibility This introductory chapter now moves on to discuss a particular aspect of children’s communication during forensic interviews that is greatly influenced by both cognitive and social factors. A large body of research in this field has looked at the suggestibility of children i.e. the ways in which reports can be affected by information from their children’s adult interviewer (e.g. Bruck & Ceci, 1999; Ceci & Bruck, 1993). Although not purposefully executed by the interviewer, this can occur because of preconceived ideas that alter the content and structure of the questioning (White, Leichtman, & Ceci, 1997). Also, as mentioned above, the cognitive overload experienced during the interview, can confuse the interviewer and lead to a misconstruction of events (Ceci et al., 1987). This misinformation can then be conveyed to the child during the questioning, and because of poor memory ability and the social demand characteristics of the interview, the child may fail to correct the interviewer and can even incorporate the incorrect information during subsequent recall. 1.4.1 Suggestibility and development Cognitive factors Of particular importance is the general finding that there exists a developmental difference in the suggestibility of children, with younger children being especially susceptible. One of the key underlying reasons for this effect is young poorer children’s memory performance. As mentioned previously, they can find the process of retrieval particularly problematic, and demonstrate more success with recognition based memory tasks (specific-closed and forced choice questions) than free recall (free narrative prompts/open questions, Saywitz & Lyon, 2002). Overall, researchers have consistently found that with pre-school aged children interviewers must rely more heavily on direct
1.4 Suggestibility This introductory chapter now moves on to discuss a particular aspect of children’s communication during forensic interviews that is greatly influenced by both cognitive and social factors. A large body of research in this field has looked at the suggestibility of children i.e. the ways in which children’s reports can be affected by information from their adult interviewer (e.g. Bruck & Ceci, 1999; Ceci & Bruck, 1993). Although not purposefully executed by the interviewer, this can occur because of preconceived ideas that alter the content and structure of the questioning (White, Leichtman, & Ceci, 1997). Also, as mentioned above, the cognitive overload experienced during the interview, can confuse the interviewer and lead to a misconstruction of events (Ceci et al., 1987). This misinformation can then be conveyed to the child during the questioning, and because of poor memory ability and the social demand characteristics of the interview, the child may fail to correct the interviewer and can even incorporate the incorrect information during subsequent recall. 1.4.1 Suggestibility and development Cognitive factors Of particular importance is the general finding that there exists a developmental difference in the suggestibility of children, with younger children being especially susceptible. One of the key underlying reasons for this effect is young children’s poorer memory performance. As mentioned previously, they can find the process of retrieval particularly problematic, and demonstrate more success with recognition based memory tasks (specific-closed and forced choice questions) than free recall (free narrative prompts/open questions, Saywitz & Lyon, 2002). Overall, researchers have consistently found that with pre-school aged children interviewers must rely more heavily on direct