Young children's responses to cross-examination style questioning: the effects of delay and subsequent questioning

Abstract

In a single experiment with 5- and 6-year-old children, we examined whether the changes that children make in response to cross-examination style questioning vary as a function of delay and/or persist in subsequent interviews. Children visited the local police station; 1–3 days later they were interviewed in a direct examination format. Either 1–3 days or 8 months later, children were interviewed in a cross-examination format designed to persuade them to change their original responses. One week following the cross-examination interview, the direct examination questions were repeated. Relative to direct examination scores, the accuracy of children's reports decreased significantly during cross-examination, irrespective of delay. When children were interviewed again 1 week after cross-examination, however, their responses (and their accuracy levels) were very similar to those observed during the direct examination interview. That is, during cross-examination, children made changes to their earlier testimony even when their memory for the event remained intact.

Keywords:

• cross-examination
• children's testimony
• compliance
• repeated interviewing
• delay

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Emma Jury and Sarah O’Neill for their assistance with data collection, the staff, parents and children of Balclutha and Rosebank Primary Schools, and Constable Mark Davies of the Balclutha Police Department.

None of the authors have any interests that might be seen as influencing this research. The research described in this article formed a portion of the first author's Ph.D. thesis. This research was approved by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant awarded to the fourth author by the Marsden Fund Council (from government funding administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand). Preparation of this manuscript was supported by a New Zealand Science & Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship to the second author and by a grant awarded to the third author by the Marsden Fund Council (from government funding administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand).