Debra A. Poole

Children's eyewitness reports after exposure to misinformation from parents.

This study examined how misleading suggestions from parents influenced childrens eyewitness reports. Children (3 to 8 years old) participated in science demonstrations, listened to their parents read a story that described experienced and nonexperienced events, and subsequently discussed the science experience in two follow-up interviews. Many children described fictitious events in response to open-ended prompts, and there were no age differences in suggestibility during this phase of the interview. Accuracy declined markedly in response to direct questions, especially for the younger children. Although the older children retracted many of their false reports after receiving source-monitoring instructions, the younger children did not. Path analyses indicated that acquiescence, free recall, and source monitoring all contribute to mediating patterns of suggestibility across age. Results indicate that judgments about the accuracy of childrens testimony must consider the possibility of exposure to misinformation prior to formal interviews.

Assessing the accuracy of young children's reports: Lessons from the investigation of child sexual abuse

Abstract Procedures for investigating allegations of child sexual abuse have come under intense scrutiny by social critics, researchers, and the courts. Concerns about under- and overidentification have fueled two approaches to evaluation: the indicator approach, which seeks to specify symptoms that can be used to identify sexually abused children, and the assessments approach, which analyzes conditions associated with accurate versus inaccurate event reports. A review of research from these approaches reveals a number of gaps between empirical results and commonly cited aphorisms about how to discriminate between true and false reports. Four principles for designing studies and communicating findings are suggested to improve the interface between research and practice.

Long-term survival of children's false memories: A review

Abstract We present a theory-based review of research on the persistence of childrens false memories over extended time intervals. Fuzzy-trace theory predicts that the long-term persistence of memory reports, whether true or false, will depend on whether initial reports were supported by verbatim or gist memories. In studies of childrens spontaneous false-memory reports, both true and false reports have displayed long-term persistence, with false reports exhibiting persistence levels that were equal to or greater than those for true reports under theoretically specified conditions (which challenges the familiar forensic rule that persistence over time is an index of a reports truth). In studies of childrens implanted false reports, both true and false reports have again displayed long term persistence, but persistence levels for true reports have usually been higher than those for false reports.

Gender-Related Knowledge Variations within Geography.

In a survey of students from junior high through the undergraduate college level, males consistently out-performed females on a test covering map skills and physical, human, and regional aspects of geography. The gender gap was consistent across all four subfields. It widened with increased education and was significant even after accounting for numerous personal information items that might have explained the difference. This consistent performance difference involving the broad spectrum of geographic knowledge argues against explaining the gender gap as symptomatic of differences in a single underlying factor such as map skills or spatial abilities. Knowledge-based and nonknowledge-based explanations for the gender difference are discussed.

Forensic Interviewing Aids: Do Props Help Children Answer Questions About Touching?

The belief that props help children report abuse has fostered the widespread use of anatomical dolls and body diagrams in forensic interviews. Yet studies involving alleged abuse victims, children who have experienced medical examinations, and children who have participated in staged events have failed to find consistent evidence that props improve young children’s ability to report key information related to bodily contact. Because props elevate the risk of erroneous touch reports, interviewers need to reconsider the belief that props are developmentally appropriate in forensic interviews, and researchers need to explore new approaches for eliciting disclosures of inappropriate touching.

Evidence supporting restrictions on uses of body diagrams in forensic interviews.

OBJECTIVE This study compared two methods for questioning children about suspected abuse: standard interviewing and body-diagram-focused (BDF) interviewing, a style of interviewing in which interviewers draw on a flip board and introduce the topic of touching with a body diagram. METHODS Children (N=261) 4-9 years of age individually participated in science demonstrations during which half the children were touched two times. Months later, parents read stories to their children that described accurate and inaccurate information about the demonstrations. The stories for untouched children also contained inaccurate descriptions of touching. The children completed standard or BDF interviews, followed by source-monitoring questions. RESULTS Interview format did not significantly influence (a) childrens performance during early interview phases, (b) the amount of contextual information children provided about the science experience, or (c) memory source monitoring. The BDF protocol had beneficial and detrimental effects on touch reports: More children in the BDF condition reported experienced touching, but at the expense of an increased number of suggested and spontaneous false reports. CONCLUSIONS The two props that are characteristic of BDF interviewing have different effects on testimonial accuracy. Recording answers on a flip board during presubstantive phases does not influence the quality of information that children provide. Body diagrams, however, suggest answers to children and elicit a concerning number of false reports. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Until research identifies procedures and/or case characteristics associated with accurate reports of touching during diagram-assisted questioning, interviewers should initiate discussions about touching with open-ended questions delivered without a body diagram.

Back to the Future: A Comment on the Use of Anatomical Dolls in Forensic Interviews

ABSTRACT Many researchers and interviewers have become disenchanted with the practice of using anatomically detailed (AD) dolls during forensic investigations, yet there is still support for doll-assisted interviews. This comment discusses five major concerns about AD dolls, involving child-related and interviewer-related factors. The research findings suggest that individuals who advocate for AD dolls bear the burden of proving that dolls are the best alternative for eliciting information about personally-experienced events from children.

Adults Usually Believe Young Children: The Influence of Eliciting Questions and Suggestibility Presentations on Perceptions of Children’s Disclosures

Do people realize the danger of asking misinformed children yes–no questions? Study 1 confirmed that disclosures children made during free recall in an earlier suggestibility study were more accurate than disclosures following “yes” responses to yes–no questions, which in turn were more accurate than disclosures following “no” responses. In Studies 2 and 3, college students watched interviews of children and judged the veracity of these three disclosure patterns. Participants generally believed false reports representing the first two patterns, although watching expert testimony that included a videotaped example of a false report reduced trust in prompted disclosures. Results document the need to inform forensic decision-makers about the circumstances associated with erroneous responses to yes–no questions.

Comfort drawing during investigative interviews: evidence of the safety of a popular practice.

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the impact of comfort drawing (allowing children to draw during interviews) on the quality of childrens eyewitness reports. METHODS Children (N=219, 5 to 12 years) who had participated in an earlier memory study returned 1 or 2 years later, experienced a new event, and described these events during phased, investigative-style interviews. Interviewers delivered the same prompts to children in the no drawing and drawing conditions but provided paper and markers in the drawing condition, invited these children to draw, and periodically asked if they would like to make another picture. RESULTS Most children in the drawing condition were interested in using the materials, and measures of eyewitness performance were sensitive to differences in cognitive ability (i.e., age) and task difficulty (i.e., delay between the remote event and interview). Comfort drawing had no overall impact as evidenced by nonsignificant main effects of condition across 20 performance measures, although more of the younger children reported experienced touching in the drawing than no drawing condition. CONCLUSIONS The children successfully divided attention between voluntary drawing and conversations about past events. Importantly, comfort drawing did not impair the amount of information recalled, the accuracy of childrens answers, or even the extent to which interviewers needed to prompt for answers. Due to the large number of analyses, the benefit of drawing for younger, touched children requires replication. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Comfort drawing poses no documented risks for typically-developing school-aged children, but the practice remains untested for younger children and those with cognitive impairments.

Underprediction of Female Performance from Standardized Knowledge Tests: A Further Example from the Knowledge of Geography Test

It has been documented that some tests ofbackground knowledge underpredict the performance offemale students in college. This study explored whetherthe underprediction phenomenon would also be found for a test that tapped four subfields ofgeography. Students (primarily White, N = 315) enrolledin nine geography classes at a comprehensive, midwesternuniversity completed the Knowledge of Geography (KOG) test during the first week of the semester andconsented to release their first exam grades, finalgrades, and ACT scores. Replicating a previous study(Henrie, Aron, Nelson, & Poole, 1997), there were gender differences favoring males across allfour subfields of the KOG test. KOG test scorescorrelated with grades, but males and females achievedcomparable course grades despite the lower performance of females on the KOG test. Examples illustratehow small differences between predicted and actualgrades can translate into large gender discrepancieswhenever minimum scores from tests that underpredict the performance of a subgroup are used toqualify students for educationalopportunities.