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‘You didn't take Lucy's skirt off’: The effect of misleading information on omissions and commissions in children's memory reports
Author(s) -
Otgaar Henry,
Candel Ingrid,
Smeets Tom,
Merckelbach Harald
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
legal and criminological psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 2044-8333
pISSN - 1355-3259
DOI - 10.1348/135532509x471951
Subject(s) - commission , clothing , psychology , false memory , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognition , psychiatry , law , political science
Purpose. The current study explored how misleading information affects children's omissions and commissions over time. Method. Fifty‐nine younger ( M age = 4.16) and fifty‐nine older ( M age = 9.44) children were instructed to remove three pieces of clothing from a puppet. Half of them were provided with false evidence that they had removed only two items, while the other half were provided with false evidence that they had removed a fourth piece of clothing. In three neutral interviews separated by 1‐week intervals, children had to report which pieces of clothing they had removed. Results. Overall, omission and commission errors significantly decreased over time, although this pattern was more pronounced for omission errors. Younger and older children were equally likely to make omission errors, whereas commission errors were more typical for younger than for older children. Also, we found that commission errors more readily occur than omission errors. Conclusion. Even when children's memory reports pertain to an event in which they actively participated, misleading information may elicit omission and commission errors, with especially the latter category being very persistent over time.