title: Allegations of wrongdoing: the effects of reinforcement on children's mundane and fantastic claims.
abstract: S. Garven, J. M. Wood, R. S. Malpass, and J. S. Shaw (1998) found that the interviewing techniques used in the McMartin Preschool case can induce preschool children to make false allegations of wrong doing against a classroom visitor. In this study, 2 specific components of the McMartin interviews, reinforcement and cowitness information, were examined more closely in interviews of 120 children, ages 5 to 7 years. Children who received reinforcement made 35% false allegations against a classroom visitor, compared with 12% made by controls. When questioned about "fantastic" events (e.g., being taken from school in a helicopter), children receiving reinforcement made 52% false allegations, compared with 5% made by controls. In a second interview, children repeated the allegations even when reinforcement had been discontinued. The findings indicate that reinforcement can swiftly induce children to make persistent false allegations of wrong doing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at El Paso, USA. sgarven@unlserve.unl.edu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garven
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Malpass
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008014:Lie Detection; D008297:Male; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014342:Truth Disclosure