| Children's credibility as eyewitnesses in court cases has become an important issue in recent years. When testifying, children in the past, as old as eight years of age, were thought of as mixing up reality with imagination and being more susceptible to suggestion. The present study challenged this notion and examined the causal mechanisms underlying suggestibility—in which, a child's developing theory of mind was proposed as a crucial factor. Specifically, it was examined if possessing knowledge of an interviewer's intention and false belief would influence the accuracy of young children's reporting of a recently witnessed event. Preschool children were asked to watch a short video clip, after which they were asked a list of detailed questions that were unbiased-leading and misleading. Knowledge of the interviewer's intention and/or false belief (about the event witnessed) were varied between participants. Results showed that the children who were given knowledge of an interviewer's intention were the most resistant to suggestive questioning, and children in the control group were the least accurate in their reporting. |
