Truth induction in young maltreated children: the effects of oath-taking and reassurance on true and false disclosures.

Coaching, truth induction, and young maltreated children's false allegations and false denials.

This study examined the effects of coaching (encouragement and rehearsal of false reports) and truth induction (a child-friendly version of the oath or general reassurance about the consequences of disclosure) on 4- to 7-year-old maltreated children's reports (N = 198). Children were questioned using free recall, repeated yes-no questions, and highly suggestive suppositional questions. Coaching...

16. Coaching, truth induction, and young maltreated children’s false allegations and false denials

Young children's understanding that promising guarantees performance: the effects of age and maltreatment.

Two studies, with 102 nonmaltreated 3- to 6-year-old children and 96 maltreated 4- to 7-year-old children, examined children's understanding of the relative strengths of "I promise," "I will," "I might," and "I won't," to determine the most age-appropriate means of eliciting a promise to tell the truth from child witnesses. Children played a game in which they chose which of 2 boxes would conta...

Eliciting maltreated and nonmaltreated children's transgression disclosures: narrative practice rapport building and a putative confession.

This study tested the effects of narrative practice rapport building (asking open-ended questions about a neutral event) and a putative confession (telling the child an adult "told me everything that happened and he wants you to tell the truth") on 4- to 9-year-old maltreated and nonmaltreated children's reports of an interaction with a stranger who asked them to keep toy breakage a secret (n =...

Maltreatment increases spontaneous false memories but decreases suggestion‐induced false memories in children

We examined the creation of spontaneous and suggestion-induced false memories in maltreated and non-maltreated children. Maltreated and non-maltreated children were involved in a Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm where they studied and remembered negative and neutral word lists. Suggestion-induced false memories were created using a misinformation procedure during which both maltre...