Preschoolers' suggestibility: Effects of developmentally appropriate language and interviewer supportiveness

Three- and four-year-old children were interviewed about a personally exper ienced event after a 2-week delay. Children were interviewed with one of fo ur alternative interview protocols that differed with regard to degree of i nterviewer support and language appropriateness. Accuracy of responses to d irect questions concerning event features was scored, and answers to mislea ding questions were coded as an indicator of suggestibility. Individual dif ference measures of language ability, temperament, task engagement, and par enting attitudes were also collected. The results indicate that interviewer s can increase young preschoolers' resistance to suggestibility by using la nguage that is easily comprehensible to young children. Language appropriat eness was not as important for the older children and the degree of support did not influence suggestibility for either the younger or the older child ren. Furthermore, individual difference measures were not related to accura cy for direct questions or suggestibility.