AND MECHANISMS Stephen J. Ceci DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NY 14853, USA Maggie Bruck DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, ...
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Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Cognition, Aging, Face, and 12 moreMedicine, Memory, Humans, Orientation, Female, Male, Names, Interpersonal Relations, Adult, Long Term, Neurosciences, and Yearbook
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Languages and Linguistics, Educational Psychology, Early Childhood Education, and 12 morePsychology of Language, Reading, Writing, Linguistics, Elementary Education, Children, Reading Development, Primary Education, Word Recognition, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Pronounciation, and Literacy Acquisition
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Languages and Linguistics, Phonetics, and 15 moreSemantics, Applied Linguistics, Attention, Reading, Language Development, Cognitive Linguistics, Linguistics, Medicine, Humans, Child, Female, Pronunciation, Male, Reading Education, and Neurosciences
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We investigated phonological awareness and spelling skills among normal readers and spellers in Grades 1 and 2 and among dyslexics who scored at the same level as the normals on a standardized spelling test. Both normal children and... more
We investigated phonological awareness and spelling skills among normal readers and spellers in Grades 1 and 2 and among dyslexics who scored at the same level as the normals on a standardized spelling test. Both normal children and dyslexics had difficulty with consonants in word-initial clusters in a phoneme recognition task and a phoneme deletion task. Also, both groups of children had trouble producing legal spellings of syllables with initial clusters, sometimes failing to represent the second consonants of the clusters. The dyslexics' phonological awareness and spelling skills were poorer than those of the younger normal children, but the two groups showed similar patterns of performance.
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The editor wishes to thank Editorial Assistant Kristen Lauer, Journal Produc-tion Supervisor Amy E. Munno, the Editorial Board members whose names appear on the inside front cover, and those individuals (listed here) who served as ad hoc reviewers for this volume.(Numbers in parentheses indicate ...more
The editor wishes to thank Editorial Assistant Kristen Lauer, Journal Production Supervisor Amy E. Munno, the Editorial Board members whose names appear on the inside front cover, and those individuals (listed here) who served as ad hoc... more
The editor wishes to thank Editorial Assistant Kristen Lauer, Journal Production Supervisor Amy E. Munno, the Editorial Board members whose names appear on the inside front cover, and those individuals (listed here) who served as ad hoc reviewers for this volume. (Numbers in parentheses indicate assistance with more than one manuscript.) ... Donna E. Alverman Richard Kruk Scott Baker Judith Meece Linda Baker Rollanda E. O'Connor (2) James F. Baumann Richard K. Olson Virginia W. Berninger (2) Dolores Perin (2) Susan Brady Pieter Reitsma (2) ...
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The spelling skills of grade 3 children who had received whole language instruction since they began to learn to read were compared with those of grade 3 children attending a phonics program. The children were asked to spell a list of... more
The spelling skills of grade 3 children who had received whole language instruction since they began to learn to read were compared with those of grade 3 children attending a phonics program. The children were asked to spell a list of words and nonwords. Overall, the phonics group produced more accurate word spellings than the whole language group. In addition, the phonics children's spellings of nonwords included more conventional, phonologically accurate patterns. There were no group differences on measures of orthographic acceptability or on preservation of skeletal structure.
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In 2 studies, children ages 3 to 7 years were asked to recall a series of touches that occurred during a previous staged event. The recall interview took place 1 week after the event in Study 1 and immediately after the event in Study 2.... more
In 2 studies, children ages 3 to 7 years were asked to recall a series of touches that occurred during a previous staged event. The recall interview took place 1 week after the event in Study 1 and immediately after the event in Study 2. Each recall interview had 2 sections: In 1 section, children were given human figure drawings (HFDs) and were asked to show where the touching took place; in the other section, the same questions were asked without the HFDs (verbal condition). Children were randomly assigned to 2 different conditions: HFD 1st/verbal 2nd or verbal 1st/HFD 2nd. There were 2 major findings. First, HFDs elicited more errors than the verbal condition when used to probe for information that the child had already been asked. Second, regardless of interview method, children had poor recall of the touches even when these occurred minutes before the interview. It is suggested that cognitive mechanisms involving memory and semantics underlie children's poor recall of touc...
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... Three studies have examined the ability of dyslexic and level-matched normal children to recognize exception, regular, and nonsense words. ... Discussion These data do not provide evidence that dyslexic children are specifically... more
... Three studies have examined the ability of dyslexic and level-matched normal children to recognize exception, regular, and nonsense words. ... Discussion These data do not provide evidence that dyslexic children are specifically impaired in their ability to pronounce nonwords. ...
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Abstract 1. Presents the retrospective memories (aided by transcripts of courtroom testimony) of the author's 1st 2 experiences as an expert witness in criminal trials. Both cases involve allegations of sexual abuse made by young... more
Abstract 1. Presents the retrospective memories (aided by transcripts of courtroom testimony) of the author's 1st 2 experiences as an expert witness in criminal trials. Both cases involve allegations of sexual abuse made by young children against their day-care ...
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A retrospective cross sectional study of the prevalence of emotional problems among 502 learning disabled children seen in a specialized learning centre was conducted. Learning disabled children, diagnosed by an experienced clinician,... more
A retrospective cross sectional study of the prevalence of emotional problems among 502 learning disabled children seen in a specialized learning centre was conducted. Learning disabled children, diagnosed by an experienced clinician, were tested for emotional disturbances using the Child Behavior Checklist. The prevalence of behaviour problems among these children was 43%. This was much higher than the ten percent expected when this measure is used in a general population. There was no greater frequency of behaviour problems in children referred by teachers than in those referred by parents. Results of logistic regression analyses reveal that children who were adolescents, from non intact families, or from lower social class backgrounds had an increased odds of having behaviour problems. The implications of these findings are examined, especially in light of possible methodological problems including selection bias, which may account for the association between emotional problems a...
Research Interests: Psychology, Personality Assessment, Medicine, Social Class, Quebec, and 13 moreHumans, Child, Female, Male, Social Environment, Incidence, Learning Disorders, Selection Bias, Cross Sectional Studies, Child behavior disorders, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Medical and Health Sciences, and Referral and consultation
... over-shadowed by suggestions (Brainerd & Reyna, 2005), whereas social theories posit that although reports are consistent with the suggestions, the original accurate memory may neverthe-less be maintained (McCloskey & Zaragoza... more
... over-shadowed by suggestions (Brainerd & Reyna, 2005), whereas social theories posit that although reports are consistent with the suggestions, the original accurate memory may neverthe-less be maintained (McCloskey & Zaragoza ... J. Zoe Klemfuss and Charlotte Sweeney ...
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In the past decade, there has been an exponential increase in research on the accuracy of young children’s memories and the degree to which young children’s memories and reports can be molded by suggestions implanted by adult... more
In the past decade, there has been an exponential increase in research on the accuracy of young children’s memories and the degree to which young children’s memories and reports can be molded by suggestions implanted by adult interviewers. Several important findings have emerged from this research. On the one hand, the results of a number of studies of children’s autobiographical recall or memory for events indicate that children’s recall is at times highly accurate and at times quite detailed about a large range of events (e.g., Baker-Ward, Gordon, Ornstein, Larus, & Clubb, 1993; Parker, Bahrick, Lundy, Fivush, & Levitt, in press; poster abstract this volume; Peterson & Bell, 1996). On the other hand there are also a number of studies that highlight the weaknesses of young children’s reports of past events when they are interviewed under certain conditions; of particular interest is the suggestibility of children. Until recently, most suggestibility studies examined the influence of a single misleading suggestion on children’s recall of an event. Generally, these studies indicated that in a variety of conditions young children are more suggestible than adults with preschoolers being more vulnerable than any other age group (see Ceci & Bruck, 1993, for a review of this literature).
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The present study evaluates the knowledge of jury-eligible college students (n = 192), investigative interviewers (n = 44), forensic psychologists (n = 39), and public defenders (n = 137) in regard to the research on interviewing... more
The present study evaluates the knowledge of jury-eligible college students (n = 192), investigative interviewers (n = 44), forensic psychologists (n = 39), and public defenders (n = 137) in regard to the research on interviewing children. These groups' knowledge was compared with the scientific research on the impact of interview techniques and practices on the accuracy of child witnesses. Jury-eligible students were the least knowledgeable, but their accuracy varied widely across items. Both interviewers and public defenders performed better than jury-eligible students, but they lacked substantial knowledge about the research on interviewing children on certain topics (e.g., using anatomically detailed dolls); forensic psychologists were the most knowledgeable. These findings suggest that professionals in the legal system need substantial professional development regarding the research on interviewing strategies with child witnesses. They also highlight the need for experts to provide case-relevant information to juries who lack basic information about the validity and reliability of children's reports.
Research Interests: Psychology, Law, Jurisprudence, Lawyers, Adolescent, and 14 moreMedicine, Knowledge, Students, Humans, Child, Forensic Sciences, Female, Male, Young Adult, Universities, Aged, Middle Aged, Adult, and Interviews as topic
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ABSTRACT Summarizes social science research addressing the issues of children's suggestibility, the primary focus being the conditions under which preschool children are most suggestible. Citing interviews with the Wee Care child... more
ABSTRACT Summarizes social science research addressing the issues of children's suggestibility, the primary focus being the conditions under which preschool children are most suggestible. Citing interviews with the Wee Care child witnesses in this case, the authors illustrate interview procedures so faulty that they may have substantially increased the risk that the children's subsequent reports were mere reflections of the interviewers' suggestions. This brief also summarizes conditions that have been shown to increase the reliability of young children's reports, and to safeguard against the production of false reports. The Wee Care children were not interviewed under such conditions. It is argued that the failure to record initial interviews with child witnesses rules out the possibility of reaching any firm conclusion as to whether any abuse actually occurred. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Abstract 1. In this rebuttal, the authors summarize and reply to many of the comments made about the amicus brief. In Section I, they address issues that are commonly raised by" pro-child"... more
Abstract 1. In this rebuttal, the authors summarize and reply to many of the comments made about the amicus brief. In Section I, they address issues that are commonly raised by" pro-child" advocates in their attacks on the scientific data regarding children's suggestibility. In ...
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Research Interests: Marketing, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Criminal Law, Cognition, and 15 moreLanguage, Medicine, Memory, Social behavior, Humans, Child, Age, Judgment, Female, Male, Adult, Social Behavior, Case History, Nino, and Child preschool
We describe examples of institutional review board (IRB) actions that have delayed or thwarted research that could not conceivably be considered to pose more than minimal risk to participants. We propose three changes to improve the IRB... more
We describe examples of institutional review board (IRB) actions that have delayed or thwarted research that could not conceivably be considered to pose more than minimal risk to participants. We propose three changes to improve the IRB process and reduce both human and financial costs.
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This article examines the component spelling skills of adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia in an effort to identify some of the basic impairments associated with their spelling problems and to determine if these adults ever attain... more
This article examines the component spelling skills of adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia in an effort to identify some of the basic impairments associated with their spelling problems and to determine if these adults ever attain age- or level-appropriate competence. College students with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia were given a dictation task, a spelling-recognition task, and a nonword spelling task to assess their use and knowledge of sound-spelling, orthographic, morphologic, and visual information. Their performance on these tasks was compared to that of control groups of normal college students and of normal grade 6 (matched with the dyslexics on the basis of their standardized spelling and reading test scores). Dyslexics' spelling problems were primarily associated with their failure to acquire knowledge of the mappings between spelling and sounds of English. Their use and knowledge of morphological (higher level linguistic) information and of visual informati...
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ABSTRACT Many researchers and interviewers have become disenchanted with the practice of using anatomically detailed (AD) dolls during forensic investigations, yet there is still support for doll-assisted interviews. This comment... more
ABSTRACT Many researchers and interviewers have become disenchanted with the practice of using anatomically detailed (AD) dolls during forensic investigations, yet there is still support for doll-assisted interviews. This comment discusses five major concerns ...
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Abstract 1. Mothers interviewed their 4-year-old children about a structured play activity that occurred minutes earlier while the mothers had been absent. Half of the mothers were forewarned that this was a memory experiment and that... more
Abstract 1. Mothers interviewed their 4-year-old children about a structured play activity that occurred minutes earlier while the mothers had been absent. Half of the mothers were forewarned that this was a memory experiment and that they should try to remember the ...
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... 30. doi: 10.1006/jecp.1993.1001. Abstract. Examined the effect of oral and writtenlanguage input on the development of phonological awareness (PHA) in 100 Czech and 101 English-speaking Canadian 46 yr olds. Results ...
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Six-year-old children's ability to categorize words on the basis of vowel categories was examined at the beginning of first grade and again after 6 months of formal schooling. The potential effects of relative proximity of vowels... more
Six-year-old children's ability to categorize words on the basis of vowel categories was examined at the beginning of first grade and again after 6 months of formal schooling. The potential effects of relative proximity of vowels in the vowel space, of syllable structure, and of input phonology were assessed. Also, the effect of literacy instruction on vowel categorization and the relationship of vowel categorization with vowel spelling and reading skill were investigated. Results indicate that the ability to categorize vowels does not develop uniformly but is affected by the degree of spectral/articulatory proximity between vowels, by syllable structure, and potentially by characteristics of the input phonology. Error analyses further indicate that children have fuzzy category boundaries between vowels adjacent on the height continuum. The pattern of results on oral categorization and written tasks suggests a reciprocal relationship. Categorization ability improved after 6 months of schooling. However, vowels that children found more difficult to categorize were also more difficult to read and spell.
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ABSTRACTEnglish-speaking children (N = 91) who were attending French schools (bilingual group) were given a battery of phonological awareness tests in kindergarten and in grade 1. At the time of kindergarten testing the mean age of the... more
ABSTRACTEnglish-speaking children (N = 91) who were attending French schools (bilingual group) were given a battery of phonological awareness tests in kindergarten and in grade 1. At the time of kindergarten testing the mean age of the children was 5:9. Their performance was compared to age-matched English-speaking children (N = 72) attending English schools (monolingual group). The bilingual children showed heightened levels of phonological awareness skills in kindergarten in the area of onset-rime awareness. By grade 1, the pattern of group differences was more complex. The monolingual and bilingual children performed similarly on onset-rime segmentation tasks. The monolingual children had higher phoneme awareness scores than their French-schooled peers; this result is interpreted to reflect the role of literacy instruction on phoneme awareness development. In comparison, the bilingual children had higher syllable segmentation scores than their monolingual peers. This result is in...
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H ow accurate are very young chil-dren's recollections about events, people, and places from their distant past? How likely is their testimony to be biased about such matters if interviewers use leading questions or... more
H ow accurate are very young chil-dren's recollections about events, people, and places from their distant past? How likely is their testimony to be biased about such matters if interviewers use leading questions or suggestive therapeutic techniques (eg, hypnosis, ...
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... Maggie Brack McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ... Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Maggie Bruck, Learning Center of Quebec, McGill University, 3640 Mountain Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G... more
... Maggie Brack McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ... Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Maggie Bruck, Learning Center of Quebec, McGill University, 3640 Mountain Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 2A8. ...
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This study investigated whether the same pattern of reading deficits that characterize dyslexic children continue to characterize this population as it reaches adulthood. Standardized and experimental reading tasks were administered to... more
This study investigated whether the same pattern of reading deficits that characterize dyslexic children continue to characterize this population as it reaches adulthood. Standardized and experimental reading tasks were administered to college students with childhood diagnoses of ...
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We summarize recent developments in the field of forensic developmental psychology that challenge traditional conceptions about the reliability of children's reports. The areas covered involve the disclosure patterns of sexually... more
We summarize recent developments in the field of forensic developmental psychology that challenge traditional conceptions about the reliability of children's reports. The areas covered involve the disclosure patterns of sexually abused children, the nature of suggestive interviews, developmental differences in suggestibility, and the amount of suggestion required to produce false reports and beliefs.
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1. examine some component reading and spelling skills of children who are good readers but poor spellers, and compare them to children who do not show such dissociations/these data allow us to address specific issues concerning the... more
1. examine some component reading and spelling skills of children who are good readers but poor spellers, and compare them to children who do not show such dissociations/these data allow us to address specific issues concerning the relationship ...
We examined, in 2 phases, the influence of postevent suggestions on children's reports of their visits to a pediatrician. Phase 1 examined the effect of giving one of 3 types of feedback to 5-year-old children immediately... more
We examined, in 2 phases, the influence of postevent suggestions on children's reports of their visits to a pediatrician. Phase 1 examined the effect of giving one of 3 types of feedback to 5-year-old children immediately following their Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus (DPT) inoculation. Children were given pain-affirming feedback (the shot hurt), pain-denying feedback (the shot did not hurt), or neutral feedback (the shot is over). 1 week later, they did not differ in their reports concerning how much the shot hurt or how much they cried. In Phase 2, the same children were visited approximately 1 year after their inoculation. During 3 separate visits, they were either given additional pain-denying or neutral feedback. They were also given misleading or nonmisleading information about the actions of the pediatrician and the assistant. Children given pain-denying feedback reported that they cried less and that the shot hurt less than did children given neutral feedback. Those who were given misleading information about the actions of the assistant and the pediatrician made more false allegations about their actions than did children who were not given this information. These results challenge the view that suggestibility effects are confined to peripheral, nonaction events; in this study children's reports about salient actions involving their own bodies in stressful conditions were influenced.
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1. Children have enormous strengths in recollecting their past. Even very young preschool children are capable of providing highly detailed and accurate accounts of prior interactions, provided that the adults who have access to them do... more
1. Children have enormous strengths in recollecting their past. Even very young preschool children are capable of providing highly detailed and accurate accounts of prior interactions, provided that the adults who have access to them do not do anything to usurp ...
Abstract: This report provides an overview of the research on the testimony of young children in cases of sexual abuse, focusing on preschoolers' presumed suggestibility and the role of researchers and mental health professionals as... more
Abstract: This report provides an overview of the research on the testimony of young children in cases of sexual abuse, focusing on preschoolers' presumed suggestibility and the role of researchers and mental health professionals as expert witnesses in such cases. It does so ...