PSYC 3020 Chapter 6: Chapter 6 Child Victims and Witness
12 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
Expert psychological testimony was becoming more acceptable in the courtroom. Social scientists were interested in research that could be applied to real-world problems. Studies on adult eyewitness testimony were increasing. The legal community became interested in behavioural science research regarding child witness. The challenge is to determine when children are recalling accurately and when they are fabricating (making false claims). Highly dependent on how they are asked to report. When children are asked to report all they can remember, using a free narrative approach, their accuracy in reporting is comparable with that of adults. They tend to report very little information using a free narrative. Older children are more resistant to leading questions than are younger children. Direct questions that require yes or no responses are problematic for pre-schoolers. When questions are unanswerable, children were more likely to say i don"t know to wh- questions than yes/no questions.
