Children's suggestion-induced omission errors are not caused by memory erasure.
We explored whether children's suggestion-induced omission errors are caused by memory erasure. Seventy-five children were instructed to remove three pieces of clothing from a puppet. Next, they were confronted with evidence falsely suggesting that one of the items had not been removed. During two subsequent interviews separated by one week, children had to report which pieces of clothing they had removed. Children who during both interviews failed to report that they had removed the pertinent item (i.e., omission error; n=24) completed a choice reaction time task. In this task, they were presented with different clothing items. For each item, children had to indicate whether or not they had removed it. Significantly more errors were made for those removed items that children failed to report than for those they had not removed. This indicates that children's suggestion-based omission errors are not due to erasure of memories.
Otgaar
Henry
H
Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Henry.Otgaar@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Meijer
Ewout H
EH
Giesbrecht
Timo
T
Smeets
Tom
T
Candel
Ingrid
I
Merckelbach
Harald
H
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D008192:Deception; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011939:Mental Recall; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012107:Research Design; D013404:Suggestion