Otgaar Henry, Howe Mark L, Merckelbach Harald, Muris Peter
Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University.
Department of Psychology, City, University of London.
Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2018 Oct;27(5):378-385. doi: 10.1177/0963721418770998. Epub 2018 Sep 14.
Suggestibility is regarded as a major issue when children testify in court. Many legal professionals and memory researchers view children as inferior witnesses. Although differences in suggestibility exist between children and adults, they are much more complex than is usually assumed. We show that under certain conditions, adults are more susceptible than children to suggestion and false memories. We provide evidence that age-related shifts in suggestibility and false memory appear contingent on how quickly and automatically children and adults make associations when experiencing events. Specifically, when confronted with suggestive information about a related but nonexperienced detail, adults more frequently automatically generate links between items experienced and those already in memory, making them more susceptible to suggestion than children.
当儿童在法庭上作证时，易受暗示性被视为一个主要问题。许多法律专业人士和记忆研究人员认为儿童是较差的证人。尽管儿童和成人在易受暗示性方面存在差异，但这些差异比通常认为的要复杂得多。我们表明，在某些情况下，成人比儿童更容易受到暗示和错误记忆的影响。我们提供的证据表明，易受暗示性和错误记忆中与年龄相关的变化似乎取决于儿童和成人在经历事件时建立联想的速度和自动程度。具体而言，当面对有关相关但未经历过的细节的暗示性信息时，成人更频繁地自动在经历过的项目与记忆中已有的项目之间建立联系，这使他们比儿童更容易受到暗示。
