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Child eyewitness testimony: The search for truth and justice in the American way

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Date Issued:
1991
Summary:
Subjects in kindergarten, grade 2, and college were shown a videotape of a bicycle theft followed by a one month longitudinal study simulating the witness's experience during the pretrial phase of a criminal prosecutorial workup. Subjects were asked for free recall as well as for responses to nonleading and correct or incorrectly leading questions. Accuracy of free recall was high for all ages. Younger children were more susceptible to suggestive leading questions and adults were found to reject many of the "correctly" leading questions. Differences were found between answers to central and peripheral items and subjects were found to change their answers within the same interview in relation to age of the witness and centrality of the question.
Title: Child eyewitness testimony: The search for truth and justice in the American way.
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Name(s): Cassel, William Steven
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Bjorklund, David F., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1991
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 141 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Subjects in kindergarten, grade 2, and college were shown a videotape of a bicycle theft followed by a one month longitudinal study simulating the witness's experience during the pretrial phase of a criminal prosecutorial workup. Subjects were asked for free recall as well as for responses to nonleading and correct or incorrectly leading questions. Accuracy of free recall was high for all ages. Younger children were more susceptible to suggestive leading questions and adults were found to reject many of the "correctly" leading questions. Differences were found between answers to central and peripheral items and subjects were found to change their answers within the same interview in relation to age of the witness and centrality of the question.
Identifier: 14734 (digitool), FADT14734 (IID), fau:11525 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Subject(s): Child witnesses
Memory in children
Eyewitness identification
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14734
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.