Küsimuste sõnajärje mõju nähtud isiku mäletamise täpsusele 4- ja 6-aastastel eesti lastel
The effect of word order in questions to the recall accuracy of a person of 4- and 6-yeara-old estonian children

Summary/Abstract: It is important to interview a child witness or victim in the criminal justice system in such a way that the information retrieved from a child would be accurate. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of the word order to the quality and quantity of the information. A hundred children (four- and six-year-olds) participated in an experiment where they saw an unfamiliar person and in the next day answered questions about the person. In asking questions different word order was used, i.e. whether the verb was in the middle or in the end of the sentence. For one group of children the questions were asked using only one or the other type of word order, for another group of the children the questions involved both type of word order. The results revealed that the word order itself did not have an effect to the quality nor quantity of the information. Six-year-olds were more accurate than four-year-olds in answering the questions. However, in comparison of whether only one type of word order (verb only in the middle or verb at the end of the questions) or random type of word order (in some questions verb in the middle and in some questions verb at the end) was used, statistically significant differences emerged in both total length and in accuracy of the answer favouring the case where only one type of word order was used. It can be suggested that in interviewing children only one type of word order (verb only in the middle or verb at the end of the questions) should be used.

• Details
• Contents