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Does the type of prompt affect the accuracy of information provided by alleged victims of abuse in forensic interviews?
Author(s) -
Lamb Michael E.,
Orbach Yael,
Hershkowitz Irit,
Horowitz Dvora,
Abbott Craig B.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1318
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , affect (linguistics) , forensic science , sexual abuse , social psychology , suicide prevention , poison control , clinical psychology , cognitive psychology , medical emergency , medicine , communication , veterinary medicine
Forty‐three victims of sexual abuse averaging 9.78 years of age and 52 youths who admitted abusing them were interviewed about the abusive incidents. Forensically relevant details provided by the victims were categorised as confirmed, contradicted or ignored by the perpetrators. Most (66.6%) of the details were ignored, but details were more likely to be confirmed when they were elicited using invitations (open‐ended free‐recall prompts) rather than focused prompts. However, similar effects were not evident with respect to contradictions. The results support predictions that information elicited using free‐recall prompts is more likely to be accurate than information elicited using focused prompts. Published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.