Deficient Cognitive Control Fuels Children's Exuberant False Allegations

Authors

Debra Ann Poole, Central Michigan University
Jason Dickinson, Montclair State UniversityFollow
Sonja P. Brubacher, Deakin UniversityFollow
Allison E. Liberty, Central Michigan University
Amanda M. Kaake, Central Michigan University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2014

Journal / Book Title

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Abstract

In eyewitness studies as in actual investigations, a minority of children generate numerous false (and sometimes incredulous) allegations. To explore the characteristics of these children, we reinterviewed and administered a battery of tasks to 61 children (ages 4-9. years) who had previously participated in an eyewitness study where a man broke a "germ rule" twice when he tried to touch them. Performance on utilization, response conflict (Luria tapping), and theory of mind tasks predicted the number of false reports of touching (with age and time since the event controlled) and correctly classified 90.16% of the children as typical witnesses or exuberant (more than 3) false reporters. Results of a factor analysis pointed to a common process underlying performance on these tasks that accounted for 49% of the variability in false reports. Relations between task performance and testimony confirmed that the mechanisms underlying occasional intrusions are different from those that drive persistent confabulation and that deficient cognitive control fuels young children's exuberant false reports.

DOI

10.1016/j.jecp.2013.08.013

MSU Digital Commons Citation

Poole, Debra Ann; Dickinson, Jason; Brubacher, Sonja P.; Liberty, Allison E.; and Kaake, Amanda M., "Deficient Cognitive Control Fuels Children's Exuberant False Allegations" (2014). Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 164.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/psychology-facpubs/164

Published Citation

Poole, D. A., Dickinson, J. J., Brubacher, S. P., Liberty, A. E., & Kaake, A. M. (2014). Deficient cognitive control fuels children's exuberant false allegations. Journal of experimental child psychology, 118, 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.08.013