Competence to confess: Measuring understanding and suggestibility of defendants with mental retardation

Groups of individuals with or without mental retardation, all of whom were currently on probation, were tested with measures of comprehension of Miran da rights and of suggestibility. As in previous work, participants with men tal retardation were found to be less able to comprehend their Miranda righ ts, In addition, they were significantly more likely to respond to suggesti ve questioning and to change their answers. Significant correlations were f ound between measures of comprehension of Miranda rights and measures of su ggestibility. Implications of these results were discussed.