Doctoral Dissertation Research: Parent-Child Discussion and Children's Eyewitness Memory

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When children are eyewitnesses to crime, their initial reports typically are not to the authorities. Rather, children likely first disclose crucial information to parents. When parents discuss shared past events with their children, an elaborative conversation style is associated with children's accurate, detailed memory reports. In contrast, parental bias and misinformation can lead to children's false reports. However, little is known about children's initial discussions with caregivers following an event witnessed only by children. Even less evidence exists about how caregivers' pre-conceived notions affect their discussion style. The proposed research will examine parent-child conversations about an unshared event and associations with children's memory accuracy. In addition, the effect of biasing information on both parent conversational style and children's memory will be examined. 132 parent-child dyads will come to the laboratory where the 3- to 6-year-olds will experience a play session, while their parents wait outside. Parents will be randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: biased (given false information about the play session), nonbiased (given no false information about the play session), or irrelevant (discuss a separate event). Parents in the biased and nonbiased conditions will be instructed to find out as much as possible about what occurred. Finally, for all groups, children's memory for the play session will be tested. New knowledge will be gained about parent-child conversations by examining how parents discuss past events about which children are the "experts." In addition children's eyewitness memory research will be extended by investigating effects of biased parental interviewing on children's memory. This research is relevant to forensic settings. Forensic interviewing techniques are becoming scientifically based, leaving little room for misinformation and suggestion. The present research will extend beyond professional interviewing, to explore how initial disclosures to parents may be sources of memory error.