A temporal discriminability account of children's eyewitness suggestibility.
Children's suggestibility is typically measured using a three-stage 'event-misinformation-test' procedure. We examined whether suggestibility is influenced by the time delays imposed between these stages, and in particular whether the temporal discriminability of sources (event and misinformation) predicts performance. In a novel approach, the degree of source discriminability was calculated as the relative magnitude of two intervals (the ratio of event-misinformation and misinformation-test intervals), based on an adaptation of existing 'ratio-rule' accounts of memory. Five-year-olds (n =150) watched an event, and were exposed to misinformation, before memory for source was tested. The absolute event-test delay (12 versus 24 days) and the 'ratio' of event-misinformation/misinformation-test intervals (11:1, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3 and 1:11) were manipulated across participants. The temporal discriminability of sources, measured by the ratio, was indeed a strong predictor of suggestibility. Most importantly, if the ratio was constant (e.g. 18/6 versus 9/3 days), performance was remarkably similar despite variations in absolute delay (e.g. 24 versus 12 days). This intriguing finding not only extends the ratio-rule of distinctiveness to misinformation paradigms, but also serves to illustrate a new empirical means of differentiating between explanations of suggestibility based on interference between sources and disintegration of source information over time.
Bright-Paul
Alexandra
A
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK. a.m.bright-paul@bristol.ac.uk
Jarrold
Christopher
C
D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013404:Suggestion; D013997:Time Factors