The effects of a computerised interview on children's recall of an event

The usefulness of an interactive computer program in eliciting children's r eports about an event was examined. Fifty-nine 5- to 6-year-old and fifty-t wo 7- to 8-year old children participated in an event with their regular cl ass teacher, which involved several activities and a mildly negative secret . Four days later, the children were interviewed individually in one of thr ee interview conditions; computer program alone, computer program with adul t assistant present and standard verbal interview format. The computer prog ram incorporated animation and audio whereby an animated figure asked the q uestions and the child was required to provide a verbal response. Results r evealed that the children were just as willing to recount details of the ev ent to the computer, compared to the standard interviewer; there was no eff ect of interview condition on the number of words and event features recall ed, and on children's willingness to disclose the secret. However, the chil dren favoured the computer interview format; they were more willing to revi se their answers to the computer than to the adult interviewer. The implica tions of these findings and possible directions for future research are dis cussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.