When children are asked to recall events, their answers can be influenced negatively or positively based on the way they were interviewed. The child’s answers are dependent on how the child is interviewed. Some issues with different interviewing techniques are the use of suggestive questioning, pressures to conform, and pressure to give the interviewer the answer that they seem to be looking for. The interview strategy that people are most familiar with is the cognitive interview. With the cognitive interview (which is also known as the hypnotic interview) the children are asked to cover their eyes while trying to recall the events. Researchers were looking to see if taking away the environment around them were increasing their ability to recall information more accurately or if closing their eyes helped them actually visualize what they were trying to recall in their minds.
To test this, researchers took 76 children and showed them a clip from “Dog Day Afternoon” in italian. The children were randomly assigned to the two different interviewing techniques, eyes closed or eyes opened. The children were asked to give the instructor free recall and then answer 20 cued questions. Participants were interviewed again one week later, and were again randomly assigned to an interviewing technique. The results showed us that the children that were interviewed with their eyes closed were much more accurate and could remember the details of the film clip longer.
This study is