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Effect of a Repeated Interview on Young Children's Eyewitness Memory

NCJ Number
133798
Journal
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1990) Pages: 117-124
Author(s)
A Tucker; P Mertin; M Luszcz
Date Published
1990
Length
8 pages
Annotation
An inoculation experience was used to investigate the effect of a repeated interview on 33 young children's eyewitness memory in an ecologically valid context.
Abstract
Five and 6-year-old children spontaneously provided information which was highly likely to be correct. The children often were able to resist suggestible questions and to identify a person present at the inoculation from a photograph. With a repeated interview, children's performance in terms of correct responses and errors was consistent across time, but interval did have an effect on some memory tasks. After 7 days, 16 children (48 percent) reported information spontaneously compared with 20 children (61 percent) after a 1-day interval. Interval did not affect children's responses to factual questions. Study findings provide support for the current trend towards early interviewing of child witnesses after a crime followed by minimal reinterviewing. 1 table and 10 references