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Gating Out Misinformation: Can Young Children Follow Instructions to Ignore False Information?
Author(s) -
Schaaf Jennifer M.,
BederianGardner Daniel,
Goodman Gail S.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.2195
Subject(s) - misinformation , opposition (politics) , session (web analytics) , recall , psychology , computer science , cognitive psychology , computer security , political science , world wide web , politics , law
The current study investigated the effects of misinformation on children's memory reports after practice with the logic‐of‐opposition instruction at time of test. Four‐ and 6‐year‐old children participated in a play event in Session 1. During a two‐week delay, parents presented their children with either misinformation or correct information about the play event. Prior to a memory interview in Session 2, some misled children were given a developmentally appropriate logic‐of‐opposition instruction to not report information provided by their parents. Results indicated that children were misled by the incorrect information, but that the logic‐of‐opposition instruction aided in the children's retrieval of the original memory, particularly for the 6‐year‐olds. Implications of the results for memory malleability and social demand effects in children are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.