Research article summary (published 30 Dec 2004):

Does a warning help children to more accurately remember an event, to resist misleading questions, and to identify unanswerable questions?

Full Abstract

This study examined potential effects of a warning instruction prior to an eyewitness interview including answerable and unanswerable questions, which both were either unbiased or misleading. A total of 84 six-, eight- and ten-year-old children were shown a short video about the production of sugar and they were individually questioned about it one week later. Half of the children received the warning instruction. The results revealed clear age effects in the correct answers and accuracy to answerable questions and in the appropriate "don't know" answers to unanswerable questions, but no effect of warning across all dependent measures. These findings suggest that preschool and elementary school age children cannot use such information adequately to increase their number of correct answers in the interview. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive explanations for these deficits.

Author information

Author/s: Beuscher, Eva (E); Roebers, Claudia M (CM);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Germany. beuscher(-atsign-)psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Experimental psychology (Exp Psychol), published in Germany. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-; vol 52 (issue 3) : pp 232-41

Dates: Created 2005/08/03; Completed 2005/12/22; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16076071, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Attention Child Child, Preschool Comprehension Concept Formation Female

Humans Male Mental Recall Reinforcement, Verbal Retention (Psychology) Suggestion

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