This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Quas, J. A. Articles by Myers, J. E. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Quas, J. A. Articles by Myers, J. E. B. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Repeated Questions, Deception, and Children’s True and False Reports of Body Touch

University of California, Irvine, jquas{at}uci.edu

Elizabeth L. Davis

University of California, Irvine

Gail S. Goodman

University of California, Davis

John E. B. Myers

University of the Pacific

Four- to 7-year-olds’ ability to answer repeated questions about body touch either honestly or dishonestly was examined. Children experienced a play event, during which one third of the children were touched innocuously. Two weeks later, they returned for a memory interview. Some children who had not been touched were instructed to lie during the interview and say that they had been touched. Children so instructed were consistent in maintaining the lie but performed poorly when answering repeated questions unrelated to the lie. Children who were not touched and told the truth were accurate when answering repeated questions. Of note, children who had been touched and told the truth were the most inconsistent. Results call into question the common assumption that consistency is a useful indicator of veracity in children’s eyewitness accounts.

Key Words: children • memory • suggestibility • repeated questions

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?