"What else could he have done?" - Creating false answers in child witnesses by inviting speculation

In 2 experiments (N = 111 children), a suggestive technique for interviewin g child witnesses called "inviting speculation" was examined. Children were presented with atypical actions for common objects in a clown show. One we ek later, the children were asked to speculate (e.g., "What else could he h ave done with the knife?") in a between-subjects design on all or none of t he items (Experiment 1) and in a within-subjects design on part of the item s (Experiment 2), thereby getting highly probable speculations (e.g., "to c ut"). After a 3-week delay, the experimenters found more highly probable bu t not more other false answers for the experimental items (Experiment 2). A fter a 5-6-month delay, the rate of (unspecified) false answers increased c ompared with the baseline (Experiments I and 2). The short-term effect is e xplained by a speculation-as-misinformation assumption, whereas the long-te rm effect is explained by the use of a metastrategy.