The authors examined the influence of interactive media on children's story memory. First-grade children (6 -7-year-olds) experienced a computer-based story in 1 of 4 presentation modes: One group heard only the narration, analogous to radio. A 2nd group saw an audiovisual presentation, analogous to television. A 3rd group viewed the story and interacted with animated areas of the screen. A 4th group was yoked to the interaction group such that they observed but did not control the interaction. The audio-only group consistently recalled and comprehended poorly, but there were no differences among the other media groups. In the interaction groups, there was also no relation between the amount of interaction with the story and subsequent memory. Overall, the results for interactive media were similar to the findings for the television-like presentation.
This research was designed to learn if children's relationships with interviewers might influence the accuracy of their eyewitness memory'and their ability to make identifications from lineups. In two experiments, kindergarten children (5-year-olds) viewed a slide show depicting a minor theft. Children were then interviewed by either their own parent or an unfamiliar experimenter with either a target present or target absent simultaneous photographic lineup. When lineups were presented by parents, children were less accurate, changed their identifications more frequently, and were more likely to acquiesce with a suggestion about an alternative identification. Children showed poorer recall of the event when interviewed by their parent in an unstructured interview (Experiment 1); however, no differences were observed when parents and experimenters followed the same script (Experiment 2). Overall, the results indicate that interviewers can influence the accuracy and consistency of children's eyewitness identifications.Recently, there has been increasing interest in young children's ability to serve as competent eyewitnesses (Ceci,
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