AGE TRENDS IN EYEWITNESS SUGGESTIBILITY AND COMPLIANCE

This paper addresses two issues: whether there is a developmental tren d in suggestibility to misleading post-event information, and whether suggestibility can be reduced by use of part of the cognitive intervie w. Twenty participants from each of three age groups (four-to-five yea r olds, eight-to-nine year olds and adults) watched a filmed event, an d half of the participants in each age group were subsequently asked t o recall everything they had seen using a method derived from the cogn itive interview procedure. Following this, all participants were asked questions about the filmed event, some of which incorporated misleadi ng information. Twenty four hours later the witnesses were interviewed again, this time critical questions were included about the truth of the presuppositions introduced in the initial questionnaire. It was fo und that although the eight-to-nine year olds were more suggestible th an adults, the apparent greater suggestibility of very young children (four-to-five years) could potentially be explained in terms of height ened compliance to the perceived demands of the interviewer. The 'be c omplete' part of the cognitive interview only produced an improvement in performance for the eight-to-nine year olds.