Counteracting Potential Contamination of Young Children's Eyewitness Reports

摘要 普尔9709111 迫切需要制定面谈程序，提高儿童在目击者报告中区分他们记得经历的事件和他们记得听到其他人描述的事件的能力。 这项研究建立在这些研究人员的早期工作的基础上，这些研究表明，来自父母的错误信息经常渗透到3至8岁儿童的自传体报告中，即使在访谈的自由叙述部分也会出现错误，提出明确的来源监控问题可以提高年龄较大的儿童区分实际发生的事件与错误信息的能力。 目前的项目开发和测试访谈技术，旨在帮助年轻的证人摆脱以前接触误导性建议的污染影响。 在第一阶段，1160名儿童单独与一个不熟悉的人（科学先生）玩耍，随后参加关于科学先生体验的采访。 三个月后，父母读一个故事给他们的孩子，孩子们在三种情况下采访：源监控培训（SMT）之前或之后的采访或没有培训控制。 数据分析评估SMT的有效性，减少虚假报告的自由叙述的反应，而不减少准确的报告，SMT对准确性的答案，引导性问题的影响，在SMT和面试中的表现发展趋势，以及个体差异变量和证词的准确性之间的关系。 本研究回答了有关儿童的可辨认性和源监控能力的基本问题，以及对司法面试有实际意义的问题。 %%% 迫切需要制定面谈程序，提高儿童在目击者报告中区分他们记得经历的事件和他们记得听到其他人描述的事件的能力。 这项研究建立在这些研究人员的早期工作的基础上，这些研究表明，来自父母的错误信息经常渗透到3至8岁儿童的自传体报告中，即使在访谈的自由叙述部分也会出现错误，提出明确的来源监控问题可以提高年龄较大的儿童区分实际发生的事件与错误信息的能力。 目前的项目开发和测试访谈技术，旨在帮助年轻的证人摆脱以前接触误导性建议的污染影响。 在第一阶段，1160名儿童单独与一个不熟悉的人（科学先生）玩耍，随后参加关于科学先生体验的采访。 三个月后，父母读一个故事给他们的孩子，孩子们在三种情况下采访：源监控培训（SMT）之前或之后的采访或没有培训控制。 数据分析评估SMT的有效性，减少虚假报告的自由叙述的反应，而不减少准确的报告，SMT对准确性的答案，引导性问题的影响，在SMT和面试中的表现发展趋势，以及个体差异变量和证词的准确性之间的关系。 本研究回答了有关儿童的可辨认性和源监控能力的基本问题，以及对司法面试有实际意义的问题。 ***

Abstract Poole 9709111 There is a pressing need to develop interviewing procedures that enhance children's ability to discriminate, in their eyewitness reports, between events they remember experiencing versus events they remember hearing other people describe. This research builds on earlier work by these investigators that demonstrated that misinformation from parents often infiltrates the autobiographical reports of 3- to 8-year-old children, that errors appear even during the free-narrative portion of interviews, that asking explicit source-monitoring questions improves older children's ability to distinguish between events that actually occurred versus misinformation. The current project develops and tests interviewing techniques designed to help young witnesses escape the contaminating influence of prior exposure to misleading suggestions. In the first phase 1160 children play individually with an unfamiliar man (Mr. Science) and subsequently participate in an interview about the Mr. Science experience. Three months later, parents read a story to their children and the children are interviewed in three conditions: source-monitoring training (SMT) before or after the interview or no training control. Data analyses assess the efficacy of SMT for reducing false reports in free-narrative response without reducing accurate reports, the effects of SMT on accuracy of answers to leading questions, developmental trends in performance during SMT and the interview, and relations between individual difference variables and accuracy of testimony. This research answers basic questions about children's suggestibility and source-monitoring ability and practical issues of significance for forensic interviewing. %%% There is a pressing need to develop interviewing procedures that enhance children's ability to discriminate, in their eyewitness reports, between events they remember experiencing versus events they remember hearing other people describe. This research builds on earlier work by these investigators that demonstrated that misinformation from parents often infiltrates the autobiographical reports of 3- to 8-year-old children, that errors appear even during the free-narrative portion of interviews, that asking explicit source-monitoring questions improves older children's ability to distinguish between events that actually occurred versus misinformation. The current project develops and tests interviewing techniques designed to help young witnesses escape the contaminating influence of prior exposure to misleading suggestions. In the first phase 1160 children play individually with an unfamiliar man (Mr. Science) and subsequently participate in an interview about the Mr. Science experience. Three months later, parents read a story to their children and the children are interviewed in three conditions: source-monitoring training (SMT) before or after the interview or no training control. Data analyses assess the efficacy of SMT for reducing false reports in free-narrative response without reducing accurate reports, the effects of SMT on accuracy of answers to leading questions, developmental trends in performance during SMT and the interview, and relations between individual difference variables and accuracy of testimony. This research answers basic questions about children's suggestibility and source-monitoring ability and practical issues of significance for forensic interviewing. ***