WHAT DID THE JANITOR DO - SUGGESTIVE INTERVIEWING AND THE ACCURACY OFCHILDRENS ACCOUNTS

Examined the influence of suggestive interviews on 5- to 6-year-old ch ildren's reports and recollections of an adult's behavior Children (29 girls, 27 boys) witnessed a confederate, acting as a janitor, either clean or play with toys. An hour later they were interviewed in succes sion by the janitor's ''boss,'' by an experimenter, and by their own p arent. Parents interviewed their child again 2 week later. The boss an d experimenter interviewed the child in one of three ways: neutral (no nleading), incriminating (suggesting the janitor was bad and playing o n the job), or exculpating (suggesting the janitor was good and doing his job of cleaning). When these interviews were neutral, children con sistently gave accurate accounts of the janitor's behavior When these interviews were suggestive, children's accounts shifted strongly in th e direction of suggestion as the interviews progressed. By the end of the suggestive interviews, children's accounts uniformly corresponded to the interviewers' suggestions, even when the suggestions were incon sistent with what actually happened. These effects of suggestion persi sted during the two nonleading parent interviews.