Drawing the answers: Sketching to support free and probed recall by child witnesses and victims with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

The success of witness interviews in the criminal justice system depends on the accuracy of information obtained, which is a function of both amount and quality of information. Attempts to enhance witness retrieval such as mental reinstatement of context have been designed with typically developed adults in mind. In this paper, the relative benefits of mental and sketch reinstatement mnemonics are explored with both typically developing children and children with autism. Children watched a crime event video, and their retrieval of event information was examined in free and probed recall phases of a cognitive interview. As expected, typically developing children recalled more correct information of all types than children with autism during free and probed recall phases.Sketching during free recall was more beneficial for both groups in both phases in reducing the amount of incorrect items, but the relative effect of sketching on enhancing retrieval accuracy was greater for children with autism. The results indicate the benefits of choosing retrieval mnemonics that are sensitive to the specific impairments of autistic individuals, and suggest that retrieval accuracy during interviews can be enhanced, in some cases to the same level as that of typically developing individuals.

Effects of delay on episodic memory retrieval by children with autism spectrum disorder

“…Most eyewitness studies suggests that, after short delays, children and adults with ASD tend to recall less information than TD peers (Bruck et al, ; Henry, Messer, et al, ; Mattison et al, ; Mattison, Dando, & Ormerod, ; McCrory et al, ; Millward et al, ). However, various studies have also reported that autistic individuals can provide as much correct information about an event as TD peers, especially when appropriate support is given at retrieval (Henry, Crane, et al, ; Maras et al, ; Maras & Bowler, ).…”

“…With regard to the accuracy of the information recalled soon after an event, the research findings are also not consistent, with some suggesting that individuals with ASD are less accurate than non‐ASD peers (e.g., Bruck et al, ; Maras & Bowler, , , ), whereas others have found that they are just as accurate (e.g., Henry, Crane, et al, ; Henry, Messer, et al, ; Maras et al, ; Maras et al, ; Maras & Bowler, ; McCrory et al, ). Still, other researchers have reported that specific interview techniques can help autistic children be as accurate as non‐ASD peers (Mattison et al, , ).…”

“…Additionally, the relevant studies conducted so far have assessed the episodic memory of children with ASD shortly after the event was experienced using a variety of methods, and none has examined changes in their recall over time. Some assessed the overall completeness of the children's recall, using a checklist of relevant event features such as actions or descriptions of items and people that were present (e.g., Bruck et al, ; Mattison et al, , ; Millward et al, ); others counted the number of unique units of information or narrative details (e.g., Henry, Crane, et al, ; Henry, Messer, et al, ), whether or not they were accurate. These coding procedures represent complementary ways of measuring children's recall.…”

Do measures of memory, language, and attention predict eyewitness memory in children with and without autism?

“…In the case of children with autism spectrum disorder (henceforth, autism), a small but growing literature indicates that they remember less about witnessed events relative to typically developing (TD) children of comparable age and intelligence (IQ) (Bruck, London, Landa, & Goodman, 2007;McCrory, Henry, & Happe´, 2007), and also when matched for verbal and non-verbal abilities but differing in age (Mattison, Dando, & Ormerod, 2016. Nevertheless, the information that they do provide is often just as accurate (Bruck et al, 2007;Mattison et al, 2015Mattison et al, , 2016 [true for probed but not free recall]; McCrory et al, 2007).…”

“…Nevertheless, the information that they do provide is often just as accurate (Bruck et al, 2007;Mattison et al, 2015Mattison et al, , 2016 [true for probed but not free recall]; McCrory et al, 2007). Further, children with autism are no more suggestible than their TD peers, and are not more likely to confabulate items of information (Bruck et al, 2007;Mattison et al, 2016Mattison et al, , 2015McCrory et al, 2007).…”