Date of Award
1-1-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Psychology
First Advisor
Stephanie E. Miller
Second Advisor
Rebekah Smith
Third Advisor
Matthew Reysen
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
The present study investigated cognitive influences on the malleability of memory for an eyewitness event, specifically focusing on age, executive function, and divided attention. Preschoolers (3- to 5-year-olds) and adults completed an executive function (EF) battery, witnessed an event either under divided attention (DA) or full attention (FA), following this, participants were asked a series of questions, the majority of which were misleading from the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children. This study supports previous findings that children are more suggestible than adults to misleading questions. However, there was no influence of EF on suggestibility in either children or adults. Lastly, level of attention was related to suggestibility in yield 1 scores, where those in the DA condition had higher suggestibility scores than those in the FA condition, supporting previous findings in adult literature and extending these findings to the preschool age.
Recommended Citation
Vandenbrink, Tonya M., "Cognitive Influences On Preschoolers’ And Adults’ Eyewitness Memory In Response To Misleading Questions" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1804.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1804