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Recency Tendency: Responses to Forced‐Choice Questions
Author(s) -
Mehrani Mehdi B.,
Peterson Carole
Publication year - 2015
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.3119
Subject(s) - two alternative forced choice , psychology , suggestibility , set (abstract data type) , social psychology , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , computer science , programming language
Summary The present study was conducted to investigate whether forced‐choice questions would lead to any particular tendency in young children's responses. Two experiments were conducted in which 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds children were shown a short animation and then were asked a set of two‐option, forced‐choice questions. Consistent findings were obtained: (i) Forced‐choice questions influenced children's responses; (ii) Children displayed a consistent ‘recency tendency.’ That is, they tended to choose the second option in forced‐choice questions; (iii) This tendency grew weaker as children aged. The findings suggest that forced‐choice questions carry some suggestibility load and can bias children's responses. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.