儿童能够提供有关犯罪虚假报告的实验分析

Summary

The current methodology is designed to provide an ecologically relevant approach for measuring the veracity, length and quality of children’s true and false testimonies. Implications of the current methodology for future research and professionals who interview children will also be discussed.

Abstract

A considerable amount of research has evaluated children’s lie-telling behaviors and skills^1-2; however, limitations with the tasks used for eliciting false testimonies and interviewing children have restricted the generalizability of the findings. The primary aim of the current study is to provide an easy-to-administer and ecologically valid method for measuring the veracity and quality of school-aged children’s (ages 6-11) testimonies when they are asked to provide different types of true and false reports. Moreover, the methodology enables researchers to examine the social and developmental factors that could influence the credibility of a child’s testimony. In the current study, children will witness a theft, and are then asked to either falsely deny the transgression, falsely accuse a researcher of the theft, or tell the truth. Afterwards, children are to be interviewed by a second researcher using a thorough and ecologically valid interview protocol that requires children to provide closed-ended and free-recall responses about the events with the instigator (E1). Coders then evaluate the length and number of theft-related details the children give throughout the interview, as well as their ability to maintain their true and false reports. The representative results indicate that the truth and lie-telling conditions elicit the intended behaviors from the children. The open-ended interview questions encouraged children to provide free-recall information about their experiences with E1. Moreover, findings from the closed-ended questions suggest that children are significantly better at maintaining their lies with age, and when producing a false denial compared to a false accusation. Results from the current study can be used to develop a greater understanding of the characteristics of children’s true and false testimonies about crime, which can potentially benefit law enforcement, legal staff and professionals who interview children.

Introduction

本研究的主要目标是为在实验环境评估儿童的真假法度提供一个生态有效方法。儿童在警方和法医的访谈故意不实报道已经降低，因为被告，原告和刑事司法系统^3-6潜在的负面影响公众对儿童证言的合法性的信任。大量的研究已经评估，以实地否认事件，以保护别人^7-12孩子的能力，或者犯，但相当少的人知道孩子的能力，使诬告^13-14。即使孩子们进行虚假的否认和/或有意忽略他们的证词的信息，也出现了被说服孩子们的众多现实生活中的情况下，诬告犯有罪过的人，如被羁押战斗⁵虐待的诬告^，15-18。通过让孩子心甘情愿地产生假的否认和虚假指控在实验环境，目前的研究方法旨在提供各类虚假报道的儿童有更强的理解，可以在自己的证词目击者告诉。

上一页谎言算命研究与儿童已普遍涉及到一个低成本的情况来看，他们是说谎关于非威胁性的事件，如破玩具^{9，12，14，}谁给警察或法医调查员提供的证词儿童经常披露成本高事件的信息，如目击犯罪行为或遭受虐待。被要求召回约一个不具威胁性的事件信息可能不会促进相同的方式，当孩子真正见证一个严重的罪过或犯罪行为谲。例如，谁见证了罪的孩子可能会遇到创伤后应激^19-20的症状;因而，他们往往reluct蚂蚁讨论其潜在的惨痛经历（S）与他人^21-22。为了提高孩子们的产生，他们被要求提供证词的情况不实报道的能力的理解，目前的研究有孩子讲一个关于一个涉嫌盗窃真话还是假话，他们可能（或可能不会）亲眼目睹。

对孩子的谎言，告诉技能过去的实验研究通常使用三至四个后续问题，以评估孩子的最初虚报是否保持整个采访中^{10-11，23-25。}此外，许多这些采访的协议都依赖于封闭式问题，其中一个孩子必须提供一个字的回应，如“是”或“否”。虽然这种方法确实提供了一些深入孩子们的欺骗能力，结果可能不能一概而论到儿童证人受到质疑有关事件的真实生活的设置。当省iding证明了警察或法医调查员，儿童常要回答要求他们提供闭环和开放式的反应很多问题;因此，如果一个孩子在说谎，他们将不得不保持过来多种类型的后续问题。为了解决这个限制，本研究将使用更长的访谈法来评估孩子的谎言，告诉技能，以及他们的证词的特点。面试协议是由认知面试（CI）及儿童健康和人类发展（NICHD）协议的研究所，这是用于增加从目击者^26-30获得的信息量生态有效警方面试技巧的影响。而不是依靠几个封闭式问题，采访由两个基线，三个开放式的，和七个封闭式问题（参见附录A）的。的问题较大数量和种类允许对所述的年龄，性别和在长度和类型的信息的儿童实验基于条件的差异检查愿意在他们的法度透露。

为了显得有说服力的，骗人的算命往 ​​往要同时管理自己的语言和非语言行为，并评估谎言收件人^10，31-32的精神状态。然而，当面试问题需要从响应增加认知努力，睡懒觉出纳员比真相出纳员更容易在他们的证词^33-34做出明显的错误。此外，越来越多的响应所需的心力实际上阻碍了谎言，告诉^35，如说谎，并令人信服地应对具有挑战性的和意想不到的问题的认知负荷可太认知费力一些^34，36。由于这些原因，警方和法医调查员一直鼓励使用开放式问题和提示，如在Cognitive采访中，增加的受访者^33-34，35所需要的认知努力。此外，这些类型的问题给予诚实的反应多次机会阐述他们此前披露的信息，这可能会导致更详细和准确的证词^{30， 38-39。}当他们被要求概括的面试问题，以及旨在提高响应的认知负荷提示，他们愿意透露有关事件的信息的数量目前的方法可以因此提供了对儿童的真假证词数据。

为了克服以往研究的局限性，目前的研究方法采用四实验条件来评估不同类型的真假报告孩子愿意对涉嫌盗窃提供。在这项研究中，儿童（6-11岁）将见证煽动者（E1）发现一个陌生人的钱包具有二十美元吧。孩子随后被E1通过问虚假或者否认发生失窃（假否定条件）骗面试官（E2），或诬告未发生（诬告条件）盗窃的E1。此外，一些孩子会被要求讲述一个盗窃做了真相（真指责条件），或未能成行（真拒绝的条件）。孩子们则通过关于发生与E1的事件第二研究员（E2）接受采访。面试是被录像，后来转录成书面成绩单。编码然后记录的话，并通过在开放性问题儿童钱包披露相关的详细信息的数量;对封闭式问题的回答被用来评估儿童保持自己的真与假报告的能力。

Protocol

注意：以下协议是按照由麦吉尔大学研究伦理委员会批准的道德标准开发的。对于有孩子，涉及欺骗所有的研究，它需要获得来自大学或机构伦理委员会批准。请注意，不同的伦理委员会可能有不同的要求。 1.准备用于实验指导E1记住每个实验条件（附录B）必要的对话，E2应该熟悉面试协议（附录A）的问题。 请点?…

Representative Results

烈告诉行为模式 图1示出的在各实验条件下的儿童谎言算命行为的速率。作为纬塔耶布 – Lachance，福斯特，格罗斯曼和塔瓦尔（审查）报道，孩子的参与者更愿意告诉相比真理条件谎言算命条件谎言;但是，没有差异的谎言，出纳员在FD和FA条件的百分比被发现了。此外，没有发现有关儿童的意愿，谎言年龄或性别差…

Discussion

目前的方法的目的是为研究人员提供用于评估不同类型的儿童真假报告一个生态的有效方法。该代表调查结果表明，目前的方法可以鼓励孩子提供虚假都否认和大约高成本事件诬告。相较于过去的研究，见证了一个低成本的事件（ 例如 ，打破了玩具^{）8，9，12，}目前的研究可以产生关于儿童的证词作为参与者普及信息将见证一个高成本后才检查孩子的假否认事件讲述不同类型的真?…

Materials

Testing Room	N/A	N/A	The room where the rapport-building activities and theft occur. The room should have at least two chairs and two tables. One table will be used for the rapport-building activities and interactions between the instigator (E1) and the child participant. The second table will have the jacket and wallet placed on it. Other items, such as books, a labtop, flowers and office items can be placed on the second table to conceal the wallet.
Common Room	N/A	N/A	Parents and other family members will remain in this room for the duration of the study. Comfortable chairs, a table, magazines, and age-appropriate toys will make the overall study experience more enjoyable for the family.
Interview Room	N/A	N/A	The room that will be used to interview the children. The room should have a table, two-chairs, and hidden cameras to record the interview.
Consent Form	N/A	N/A	Form that the parents compete prior to beginning the study. It should include a detailed explanation of the study, along with all the ethics considerations. Parents should sign this form before commencing the activities with the child.
Demographics Form	N/A	N/A	A form that that provides any demographic information that is needed for the study, such as the race, income, religious background, and level of education of the family.
Rapport-building Activities	N/A	N/A	Age-appropriate games and cognitive measures, such as a standardized verbal ability task. The rapport-building activities should take between 30 to 40 minutes.
Jacket	N/A	N/A	A jacket that would realistically be worn according to the weather outside.
Wallet	N/A	N/A	A gender-neutral wallet that includes fake identification cards, such as an old bus pass, and a twenty-dollar bill.
Puzzle	N/A	N/A	A child-friendly puzzle that can be completed in 5 to 10 minutes. The current study utilized a puzzle that included 30 pieces.
Interview Script	N/A	N/A	The interview script used in the current study.
Hidden Cameras	N/A	N/A	Any camera that can easily be hidden from the child participants. The camera(s) should also be able to record individual HD videos for at least 30 minutes.
Word Processing Program	N/A	N/A	Any word processing program that can be used to transcribe the videos. This program should also be able to count the number of words in a document.
Statistical Analysis Program	N/A	N/A	Any statistical analysis program that can perform chi-square or logistic regressions for children’s willingness to lie data, and linear regressions on children’s maintenance scores.