Adults' Ability to Detect the Pseudotemporal Problem when Children Give "I Don't Know" Responses

Area of Science:

• Child language development
• Forensic psychology
• Cognitive science

Background:

• The "pseudotemporal" problem occurs when children misinterpret invitations containing 'time' as requests for temporal information.
• This miscommunication is challenging to detect, particularly with unelaborated "I don't know" (IDK) responses from children.
• Previous research highlights the pseudotemporal problem in child-adult communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate adult participants' ability to detect the pseudotemporal problem in mock forensic interviews.
• To analyze how children's responses, specifically IDK, influence the detection of miscommunication.
• To explore the relationship between adult reasoning for children's IDK responses and their detection of the pseudotemporal problem.

Main Methods:

• 352 adult participants evaluated 12 invitation/response pairs from a mock forensic interview.
• Participants assessed their interpretation of invitations containing the word 'time'.
• Detection of the pseudotemporal problem was analyzed in relation to response types, including unelaborated IDK responses.

Main Results:

• Adults most commonly interpreted invitations with 'time' as requests for event information ("what happened").
• Participants demonstrated low accuracy in identifying the pseudotemporal problem.
• Detection rates were significantly lower when children provided unelaborated IDK responses.

Conclusions:

• Adults frequently misinterpret children's use of 'time' in interview contexts.
• The pseudotemporal problem is often undetected by adults, especially with non-specific child responses.
• Understanding the reasons behind children's IDK responses is crucial for improving communication detection in forensic settings.