Pseudotemporal Invitations: 6- to 9-year-Old Maltreated Children’s Tendency to Misinterpret Invitations Referencing “Time” as Solely Requesting Conventional Temporal Information

Abstract

Forensic interviewers ask children broad input-free recall questions about individual episodes in order to elicit complete narratives, often asking about “the first time,” “the last time,” and “one time.” An overlooked problem is that the word “time” is potentially ambiguous, referring both to a particular episode and to conventional temporal information. We examined 191 6-9-year-old maltreated children’s responses to questions about recent events varying the wording of the invitations, either asking children to “tell me about” or “tell me what happened” one time/the first time/the last time the child experienced recent recurrent events. Additionally, half of the children were asked a series of “when” questions about recurrent events before the invitations. Children were several times more likely to provide exclusively conventional temporal information to “tell me about” invitations compared to “tell me what happened” invitations, and asking “when” questions before the invitations increased children’s tendency to give exclusively conventional temporal information. Children who answered a higher proportion of “when” questions with conventional temporal information were also more likely to do so in response to the invitations. The results suggest that children may often fail to provide narrative information because they misinterpret invitations using the word “time.”

Adults' interpretation of invitations using the word ‘time’

“…Furthermore, adults reported that about the time invitations could be asked of younger witnesses than what happened invitations. This was surprising, given that what happened invitations are thought to be the optimal form of the question and have been repeatedly shown to be less likely to lead to pseudotemporal responses (Friend et al, 2022; McWilliams et al, 2023). Unfortunately, these findings may suggest that adults are failing to recognise the lack of clarity in about the time questions.…”

“…‘Tell me about the last time you played soccer’) that include the word ‘time’, and thus may be misinterpreted as asking about the time rather than the event (e.g. ‘It was on Saturday.’; Friend et al, 2022; McWilliams et al, 2023). Invitations using the word ‘time’ are recommended by standardised interviewing protocols as a means of eliciting information about specific episodes (Sternberg et al, 2001; Zajac & Brown, 2018).…”

“…'It was on Saturday. '; Friend et al, 2022;McWilliams et al, 2023). Invitations using the word 'time' are recommended by standardised interviewing protocols as a means of eliciting information about specific episodes (Sternberg et al, 2001;Zajac & Brown, 2018).…”

“…Recently researchers have identified how children may misinterpret invitations using the word ‘time’ as asking for temporal information (Friend et al, 2022; McWilliams et al, 2023). These invitations are non‐temporal prompts (e.g.…”

“…The dangers of pseudotemporal responding when the interviewer is seeking critical information are outlined by both Friend et al (2022) and McWilliams et al (2023). First, children's pseudotemporal responses are problematic because they provide solely conventional temporal information rather than a narrative of the sequence of events, which limits the ability of an interviewer to follow up.…”