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Children's under‐informative responding is associated with concealment of a transgression
Author(s) -
Gongola Jennifer,
Williams Shanna,
Lyon Thomas D.
Publication year - 2021
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.3840
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , marine transgression , false memory , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , paleontology , structural basin , biology
Summary Concealment (i.e., omitting information without saying anything untrue) has received little empirical attention relative to falsification (i.e., false statements). This study examined free recall reports among a sample of 349 maltreated and nonmaltreated children ages four to nine, and found that concealment of a minor transgression was significantly associated with two types of responding: generic under‐informative responding, wherein responses are relevant but imprecise, general, or vague; and specific under‐informative responding, wherein responses selectively omit incriminating details. Under‐informative responding failed to distinguish between children who would ultimately reveal the transgression when asked recognition questions and children who would answer falsely. The results suggest that children's initial recall reports may provide some insight into the likelihood that they are concealing information.