Background: The tendency for accepting and/or behaving under the influence of other’s suggestion in an interview context can be described as ‘interrogative suggestibility’ (IS). The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS) are used within many clinical and forensic settings as a tool to gauge the reliability of information obtained during interviews. Concerns exist regarding the suitability of these scales for use amongst the population of people with an intellectual disability (ID). Previous research concludes that the GSS may disadvantage people with an ID, indicating a greater degree of IS than is actually the case. Method: The following systematic review of several electronic databases explores research to date (and what conclusions have been drawn) in relation to the degree to which cognitive variables relate to scores obtained on the GSS by people with an ID. The subsequent empirical study makes adaptations (e.g. supplementing verbal information with visuals) to the GSS in an attempt to improve its suitability for use with people with an ID. In addition, a number of cognitive variables are measured (e.g. verbal and visual memory) and their relationship with scores on the scales explored. Results: The adaptations to the GSS did not result in a significant change to scores on the GSS. It was found that visual memory ability may contribute to whether visual information effects scores on the GSS following adaptations. Whilst tentative conclusions are drawn regarding the role of memory ability, the systematic review of research was limited in it’s clarification of the role of cognitive variables in IS. This is likely due to limited scope and quality of existing research. Conclusion: Both the empirical study and the systematic review highlight the complexity of the field of interrogative suggestibility, particularly amongst people with an ID.

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Master's thesis follows on bachelor thesis Specifics of children's testimony from the point of view of Psychology, expanding chapter about suggestibility. Theory involves phenomenon of suggestibility with emphasis put on Gudjonsson's concept of suggestibility in conjunction with interrogative events. Further chapters delve into scientific findings regarding hazardous factors enhancing or decreasing suggestibility of young witnesses, among others are age, cognitive and psychosocial factors. Thesis also presents the very own types of discovered and described interrogation techniques utilizing elements of suggestion like stereotype induction, leading questions, positive and negative consequences or peer pressure. Paper presents results of empirical research, reproduced experiment which was used as tool mapping suggestibility dangers among Czech children. Focused on pre-school children subjected to heavily suggestive interrogation about event they experienced, through later interviews it was measured to which extent highly suggestive interviews altered perceived reality.

Suggestibility occurs when inaccurate information is incorporated into currently existing memories. The present study examined the effect of forewarning on suggestibility, including the influence of working memory capacity (WMC). The main hypotheses are that forewarnings will reduce suggestibility compared to the control group and that high-WMC will yield lower suggestibility compared to medium- and low-WMC. The final hypothesis is that WMC and forewarning will interact such that low-WMC individuals will benefit more than high-WMC individuals from the forewarning. A sample of 123 college students was recruited. Participants watched a clip of the TV-show 24. WMC was then assessed followed by the presentation of a misleading narrative. Prior to listening to the narrative, they read a set of instructions that sometimes contained the forewarning. After listening to the misleading narrative, participants took a test over their memories of the film. A 2 X 3 ANOVA was conducted and found a main effect for forewarning. No other effect was significant. The current results only support the first main hypothesis that forewarning reduces suggestibility. These results could be used to help prepare eyewitnesses to resist misinformation in the period between witnessing an event and reporting the event during a later trial.

The chief aim of this dissertation was to establish the respective contributions of automatic and intentional memory processes to misinformation effects in 5-, 8-, and 9-year-old children. In the first two experiments children were presented with a picture story followed by misleading post-event details that were either read to participants, or were self-generated in response to semantic and perceptual hints. Children were then presented with original and suggested items and given a yes / no recognition test under inclusion or exclusion instructions. The application of Jacoby’s (1991) process dissociation procedure to children’s recognition performance revealed that the contribution of intentional processing to misinformation acceptance increased following the self-generation of suggestions. Automatic processing made a strong contribution to misinformation effects regardless of the way that misinformation was encoded. Experiment 3 extended this general pattern of results to a forced choice recognition paradigm. Experiment 4 examined the role of social demand factors in children’s suggestibility using Belli’s (1989) yes / no retrieval paradigm. Little evidence of an influence of social demand on children’s suggestible responses was found with automatic processes again the predominant factor determining suggestibility. In the final experiment, the temporal order of the original and post-event phases was reversed such that 5-year-olds were initially presented with a post-event summary containing misinformation, followed by a witnessed event. The results of this study confirmed that children’s suggestions were unlikely to be the result of trace alteration or social demand. The implications of the findings for theoretical accounts of the misinformation effect in children’s recognition and for children’s eyewitness testimony are discussed. / PhD Doctorate

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The Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (VSSC) was developed by Scullin and colleagues (Scullin & Ceci, 2000; Scullin & Hembrooke, 1998) as a tool for discriminating between children who have different levels of suggestibility. The scale requires children to view a 5-minute video about a birthday party, and to subsequently participate in an interview consisting of 18 yes/no questions. The VSSC consists of two main subscales; Yield (a measure of children's willingness to respond affirmatively to misleading questions about the video) and Shift (a measure of the children's tendency to change their responses after negative feedback from the interviewer). Preliminary research by Scullin and colleagues suggested that the scale possesses satisfactory internal consistency and that children's scores on the VSSC can predict their performance in another suggestibility paradigm. This thesis presents two studies, which further examine the validity and usefulness of the VSSC in an Australian sample of 3- to-5-year-old children. In Study One, children's performance on the VSSC (N = 77) was compared to their performance using other measures of suggestibility. These measures included children's willingness to assent to a false event as well as the number of false interviewer suggestions and new false details that the children provided in their accounts about an independent true-biased and an independent false (non-experienced) event. An independent samples t-test revealed that those children who assented to the false activity generated higher scores on the Yield measure. This pattern was also observed for the Shift subscale although it was not significant. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that Yield was a significant predictor of the number of false details reported about the false activity, but not the true-biased activity. There was no significant relationship between the Shift Vlll subscale and any of the dependent variables. Overall this study provided partial support for the construct validity of the VSSC. However, it indicated that children's performance on this scale may not be generalisable across different contexts and interview paradigms, and that the Yield subscale is more generalisable than the Shift subscale. Study Two examined whether various group and individual factors that have previously been shown to relate suggestibility (i.e., age, IQ, memory, socio-economic status, gender, temperament) could predict suggestibility as measured by the VSSC. Two hundred and twenty children were recruited from kindergartens, and were divided into two broad socio-economic categories (based predominantly on income). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that age, intelligence and memory inversely predicted children's Yield suggestibility. Further, children of low socio-economic backgrounds were more suggestible than children of high socio-economic background, and boys were more suggestible than girls on the Yield measure. Although shyness and other internalised and externalised characteristics were explored, no reliable significant relationships were found with Yield. With regard to the Shift subscale, no reliable relationships were found for any of the independent variables except for SES. Overall, results of Study 2 indicated that the VSSC is a potentially useful measure for discriminating between children's suggestibility on the basis on their individual characteristics, although benefits were observed mainly in relation to the Yield subscale. With reference to the findings of these two studies, the potential contribution of the VSSC for research and applied forensic contexts was discussed.