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Perception versus reality: Investigating the impact of talkativeness on children’s credibility and reliability

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Version 2 2023-09-26, 01:36
Version 1 2021-12-08, 08:55
thesis
posted on 2023-09-26, 01:36 authored by Pierce, Helen

Does how much children say predict how credible they are as a witness? Children’s talkativeness can be easily observed by jurors, but we know very little about how it affects judgements of children’s credibility. The present research investigates the effect of talkativeness on juror perceptions and children’s actual testimony. In Study 1 participants rated six transcripts from low/high talkative 5-, 8-, or 12-year old children. Results showed that mock jurors rated high-talkative children more favourably than low-talkative children and older children were rated more favourably than younger children. In Study 2 we analysed transcripts of memory interviews from 5-, 8-, and 12-year-old children. Talkativeness was not associated with accuracy, but child age was. Talkativeness and child age were both associated with the amount of information recalled. This research shows that talkativeness of child witnesses not only influences juror perceptions but also is an indication of the amount of information that children recall in a memory interview. It is not just what a child says, but also how they say it that matters.

History

Copyright Date

2019-01-01

Date of Award

2019-01-01

Publisher

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Rights License

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Degree Discipline

Psychology

Degree Grantor

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Degree Level

Masters

Degree Name

Master of Science

ANZSRC Type Of Activity code

3 APPLIED RESEARCH

Victoria University of Wellington Item Type

Awarded Research Masters Thesis

Language

en_NZ

Victoria University of Wellington School

School of Psychology

Advisors

Brown, Deirdre