Age differences in children's susceptibility to Immediate Misinformation Acceptance: Who are the most vulnerable? Payoux, M., Verrier, N., & Corson, Y. LPPL UPRES EA 4638, University of Nantes, France,
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION o Suggestibility is a complex and multidimensional concept (Ornstein & Elischberger, 2004). o One facet of suggestibility, the “Immediate Misinformation Acceptance” (IMA), is observed when a person accepts immediately erroneous information suggested through questions (Schooler & Loftus, 1993, see also Eisen et al., 2002). Developmental studies investigating immediate suggestibility reported that younger children are more susceptible to misleading questions than older children or adults (e.g., Roebers & Schneider, 2000, 2005). Many internal factors increased or decreased IMA among children (Bruck & Melnyk, 2004). o Suggestibility is usually measured by comparing the number of incorrect responses to unbiased and misleading questions. Question format (unbiased vs misleading) is a between-subjects factor in most studies (e.g., Ridley, Clifford & Keogh, 2002; Roebers & Schneider, 2000). In this case, children answer either misleading, or unbiased questions. In the between-subjects designs, individual differences may become confounding variables or increase variance. These problems are reduced in a within-subjects design which is thus more powerful. In past research, questions difficulty was not controlled. For example, misleading questions might be more difficult to answer than unbiased ones. o The objective of the present study was thus to examine the IMA in 3 age groups (6-, 10- and 14-year-olds), with question format as a within-subjects factor and with controlling questions difficulty.
METHOD o Participants A 6-year-old group, n = 64 (M = 67.5 months, SD = 4.81) A 10-year-old group, n = 52 (M = 114.8 months, SD = 3.34) A 14-year-old group, n = 50 (M = 162.1 months, SD = 3.57) o Material A 10 minutes film clip made from sequences of the movie picture “Denis the Menace” A distractive task (graphic copy of the complex figure of Rey) A 16 items questionnaire: 8 misleading questions (e.g.,“The old man eats fish, isn’t he?”) and 8 unbiased questions (e.g.,“What does the old man eat?”). Each question is proposed in the unbiased and misleading format (e.g., regarding the question about the old man’s meal,
half of the children answered the misleading question “The old man eats fish, isn’t he?” and half of the children answered the unbiased question “What does the old man eat?”).
Procedure:
10 min
5 min
3 min
RESULTS
o Planned comparisons revealed that: Only 6-year-olds children gave significantly more incorrect answers to misleading questions than to unbiased questions
50
40
Mean percentage
A significant difference between proportions of incorrect answers to misleading questions and to unbiased questions reflected IMA. o The 3(Age) x 2(Question format) ANOVA conducted on mean proportions of incorrect answers revealed: A significant Age x Question format interaction (cf. Fig 1.) A significant main effect of Age: Children gave fewer incorrect answers with age A significant main effect of the Question format: Children gave more incorrect answers to misleading questions
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30
Misleading Questions
ns
20
Unbiased Questions
ns
10
0 6
10
14
* p
