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Eliciting children's recall of events: how do computers compare with humans?

Version 2 2024-06-17, 03:50
Version 1 2014-10-27, 16:26
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-17, 03:50 authored by M Powell, J Wilson, Don ThomsonDon Thomson
This study investigated the usefulness of an interactive computer program in eliciting children's reports about an event. Fifty-four 5–6- and fifty-nine  7–8-year old children participated in an event with their regular class teacher which involved several activities and a mildly negative secret. Four days and again 14 days later, the children were interviewed individually by computer (alone) or by a human interviewer. The computer program incorporated animation and audio whereby an animated figure asked the questions and the children were required to provide a verbal response. The accuracy and detail of the children’s reports was similar across the interview conditions. The children were more willing to review their answers with the computer than the adult interviewer. However, responses to the computer were less consistent across the interviews, and the children were less willing to disclose the secret in the second interview to the computer compared with the human interviewer. Overall, the computer revealed little benefit in eliciting children’s recall of the event over the standard face-to-face interview.

History

Journal

Computers in human behavior

Volume

18

Pagination

297-313

Location

New York, N.Y.

ISSN

0747-5632

eISSN

1873-7692

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2002, Elsevier Science Ltd.

Issue

3

Publisher

Pergamon

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