Citation

Gee S, Gregory M, Pipe ME. Leg. Crim. Psychol. 1999; 4(1): 111-128.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, British Psychological Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1348/135532599167716

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Purpose. Two studies evaluated the effects of question type and of brief pre-interview training, involving instructions and practice, on the number of correct answers and errors given by children in a structured interview.Methods. A total of 157 children aged from nine to 13 were interviewed about a visit to a science centre with both misleading and non-misleading open and closed questions. The children also rated their confidence in each of their answers. Half the children received pre-interview training designed to discourage compliance and guessing.Results. In Study 1 pre-interview training decreased commission errors to misleading questions, but also decreased the number of correct responses to non-misleading questions. In Study 2 a revised training package decreased errors for misleading questions without impacting on correct responses.Conclusions. Brief pre-interview interventions can reduce children's compliance with misleading questions in experimental situations. Both studies provided some support for the cognitive processing hypothesis that the confidence-accuracy relationship will be stronger for open than for closed questions.

Language: en