Assessing the effects of misinformation on children's recall: How and whenmakes a difference

In two experiments children aged between 4 and 5 years and 7 and 8 years, r espectively, participated in a real-life event and were exposed to misleadi ng questions immediately afterwards. The effects of variables relating to b oth the presentation of the misinformation and to the assessment of suggest ibility were examined both immediately and following delays of 1 week (Expe riment 1) or both 1 week and 1 month (Experiment 2). Older children were le ss suggestible than younger. Children were less suggestible when suggestibi lity was assessed in recall questions rather than misleading questions, les s suggestible when information was central rather than peripheral and when the misinformation contradicted rather than supplemented the original event , and less suggestible over time in the absence of further suggestions. Pro viding cues had a small effect in enhancing resistance to the misinformatio n, but only when children were tested immediately. Embedding suggestions in a narrative context and repeating suggestions within a session led to grea ter suggestibility for both age groups, and repeating suggestions following a I-month delay had a particularly marked effect for the younger children. These findings are consistent with the view that suggestibility effects de pend on the strength of the memory trace for the original information as we ll as that for the suggestion. How suggestibility is assessed is, however, also important and children's responses to misleading questions may not ref lect their memory for the original event. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & S ons, Ltd.