Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2010 Mar;105(3):156-77. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2009.04.004. Epub 2009 Dec 6.
A critical issue for developmental psychology is how to obtain accurate and complete eyewitness memory reports from preschoolers without offering suggestions that might result in false allegations. We examined effects of two interviewing strategies (police/verbal interviews and clinician/prop-assisted interviews) on young children's reports about a medical examination. A total of 58 4-year-olds participated in the study, which conformed to a 2 (Interview Type)x2 (Number of Interviews) factorial design. Analyses revealed that interviewers spent less time off topic and asked more free recall questions in the police/verbal interviews than in the clinician/prop-assisted interviews. Compared with police/verbal interviews, clinician/prop-assisted interviews resulted in significantly more correct rejections and commission errors in children's memory reports. However, on a final free recall test, error rates were comparable across conditions. Higher child verbal intelligence predicted memory accuracy in police/verbal interviews, and greater parental attachment anxiety predicted children being asked a higher number of misleading questions. The study provides new insights into interview techniques that promote preschoolers' accurate eyewitness reports.
发展心理学的一个关键问题是如何在不提供可能导致虚假指控的建议的情况下，从学龄前儿童那里获得准确和完整的目击记忆报告。我们研究了两种访谈策略（警察/口头访谈和临床医生/道具辅助访谈）对幼儿关于体检报告的影响。共有 58 名 4 岁儿童参与了这项研究，该研究符合 2（访谈类型）x2（访谈次数）的因子设计。分析表明，与临床医生/道具辅助访谈相比，警察/口头访谈中的访谈者在主题之外花费的时间更少，提出的自由回忆问题更多。与警察/口头访谈相比，临床医生/道具辅助访谈导致儿童记忆报告中的正确拒绝和错误判断明显更多。然而，在最后的自由回忆测试中，错误率在不同条件下相当。儿童的言语智力越高，在警察/口头访谈中记忆的准确性就越高，而父母依恋焦虑程度越高，儿童被问到的误导性问题就越多。这项研究为促进学龄前儿童准确的目击证人报告的访谈技巧提供了新的见解。
