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Drawing out children's false memories
Author(s) -
Strange Deryn,
Garry Maryanne,
Sutherland Rachel
Publication year - 2003
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.911
Subject(s) - recall , psychology , false memory , developmental psychology , suggestibility , eyewitness testimony , social psychology , cognitive psychology
Since the early 1980s there has been much research investigating children's susceptibility to memory distortions when interviewed with a range of techniques. Early studies using the ‘Draw and Tell’ interview have shown that drawing, when used as a recall technique, increases the amount of correct information reported during a recall interview, without decreasing accuracy (Butler et al., 1995). We examined whether drawing, as a rehearsal technique, would lead 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children to claim that implausible events that they had previously said didn't happen, had actually happened. Children were asked whether a list of events on a Life Events Inventory (LEI) had occurred. One week later, half the children completed a ‘Draw and Tell’ interview for some target events but not others. All children completed the LEI again. Children who drew were more likely to claim that all events, not just those they drew, really happened. We discuss implications for the use of the ‘Draw and Tell’ procedure in clinical and therapeutic contexts. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.