Children's suggestibility for neutral arbitrary actions in the context of norm violations

Abstract

This study investigated children's false memories for neutral arbitrary actions. Five- to six-year-olds (N = 32) were taught four arbitrary actions, each following specific rules. The children then watched a televised adult performing eight actions: the four familiar actions while violating one aspect of each rule script and four unfamiliar actions. Suggestive and non-suggestive questions about all witnessed actions were asked, followed by forced-choice test questions to measure the false memory effect. The likelihood of forming false memories was higher in the suggestive condition than in the non-suggestive condition. There was no effect of previously acquired knowledge about the rules of the actions and no interaction between rule knowledge and suggestion. The results are discussed in light of previous findings in related fields of false memory research.

Fig 1. Depiction of the eight different actions used in the experiment sorted by A and B actions.

Note. All labels are the anglicized version from the original German labels (e.g. “daxing” instead of “daxen”). A1) Daxing: Pushing the wooden cube with the pencil; script violation is pushing the wooden cube with the spoon. A2) Baffing: Stringing the wooden beads in the order white—green—white; script violation is stringing only the white beads. A3) Moekeling: Using the clothespin to lift the red wooden figure and put it on the red mark; script violation is using the clothespin to lift the yellow wooden figure and put it on the red mark. A4) Kubbling: Jumping the monkey figure on the desk twice and putting it into the blue beaker with the second jump; script violation is putting the monkey figure into the green beaker. B1) Rauding: Taking the three blocks, mounting them on the wooden dump truck, driving them to the paper and arranging them according to their color; script violation is using the Lego car instead of the wooden dump truck. B2) Grupeling: Arranging the three wooden cubes next to each other in one row, then stacking them on top of each other to build a tower; script violation is rearranging the cubes back into a pyramid. B3) Fruling: Pushing the blue brick into the blue goalpost; script violation is pushing the yellow brick into the blue goalpost. B4) Loeking: Putting the yellow mug over the yellow rubber duck; script violation is putting the yellow mug over the purple rubber duck.

Fig 2. Sequence of the different phases of the procedure.

Note. The protagonist depicted in this manuscript has given written informed consent to publish this picture.