RT Article
T1 Adults’ perceptions of children’s referentially ambiguous responses
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 25
IS 7
SP 729
OP 738
A1 Wylie, Breanne E.
A1 Aidy, Christina L.
A1 Evans, Angela D.
A1 Lyon, Thomas D.
A1 O'Connor, Alison M.
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1736565699
AB The present study examined adults’ (N = 295) interpretations of child witnesses’ referentially ambiguous “yes” and “no” responses to “Do You Know/Remember (DYK/R) if/whether” questions (e.g. “Do you know if it was blue?”). Participants were presented with transcripts from child sexual abuse cases modified based on question format (DYK/R vs. Direct) and child response type (Yes, No, I don’t know) in a between subjects design. We assessed whether adults recognized that children’s ambiguous responses were unclear, and if not, how they were interpreting children’s responses compared to the control (Direct) conditions. More specifically, we assessed whether adults interpreted children’s responses as answering the explicit (e.g. “No, I don’t remember”) or implicit (e.g. “No, it wasn’t blue”) question. Participants virtually never recognized ambiguous responses as unclear, and their interpretations were influenced by the attorney’s question and child’s response type. In sum, these results suggest that DYK/R questions often lead to misinterpretation, resulting in miscommunication.
K1 Jury
K1 Child witness
K1 Referential ambiguity
K1 Response interpretation
K1 Testimony
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2018.1552757