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

当儿童是犯罪的目击者时，他们最初的报告通常不会向当局报告。相反，孩子们可能会首先向父母透露关键信息。当父母与孩子讨论共同的过去事件时，详尽的谈话风格与孩子准确、详细的记忆报告有关。相比之下，父母的偏见和错误信息可能会导致孩子的虚假报告。然而，人们对儿童在只有儿童目睹的活动后与照顾者的初步讨论知之甚少。关于照顾者的先入为主的观念如何影响他们的讨论风格的证据就更少了。这项拟议的研究将考察父母和孩子关于未分享的事件的对话，以及与孩子记忆准确性的关联。此外，我们还将考察偏向信息对父母会话风格和儿童记忆的影响。132名亲子二人组将来到实验室，3至6岁的孩子将在那里体验一次游戏，而他们的父母则在外面等待。家长们将被随机分配到三种实验条件中的一种：有偏见(给出关于游戏环节的虚假信息)、无偏见(没有关于游戏环节的虚假信息)或无关(讨论单独的事件)。在有偏见和无偏见的情况下，父母将被指示尽可能多地了解所发生的事情。最后，对于所有小组，将测试儿童在游戏过程中的记忆力。有关亲子对话的新知识将通过调查父母如何讨论过去哪些孩子是“专家”来获得。此外，还将通过调查有偏见的父母访谈对儿童记忆的影响来扩展儿童目击记忆的研究。这项研究与取证环境有关。法医面谈技术正在变得科学为基础，几乎没有留下错误信息和建议的空间。目前的研究将超越专业访谈，探索最初向父母透露的信息如何可能成为记忆错误的来源。

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.