Improving young children’s free narratives about an observed event: The effects of nonspecific verbal prompts

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of two nonspecific verbal prompts in interviewing preschool children and second graders. Forty kindergartners (M age = 71.6 months) and 46 second graders (M age = 97.6 months) watched a 7 minute video about a gang of adolescent boys stealing money from another youth. Three weeks later they were interviewed about the content of the film under two experimental conditions. Both groups were first asked to report everything that they could remember about the movie. This initial instruction was then repeated twice for the no cues group. Participants in the verbal cues group were instead instructed to report everything they remembered seeing and everything they remembered hearing. In addition, verbal intelligence was measured for all participants. Children of both age groups reported significantly more information when they were interviewed under the verbal cues condition. The use of the verbal prompts did not affect the overall high levels of accuracy. Verbal intelligence showed a moderate positive effect on measures of recall but did not moderate the efficacy of the verbal prompts.

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