Adults’ perceptions of children’s referentially ambiguous responses
Date
2018
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Psychology, Crime, & Law
Abstract
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.
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Keywords
child witness, jury, response interpretation, referential ambiguity, testimony
Citation
Wylie, B.E., Lyon, T.D., O’Connor, A.M., Lapytskaia, C., & Evans, A.D. (in press). Adults’ perceptions of children’s referentially ambiguous responses. Psychology, Crime, & Law.