Investigating Event Memory in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effects of a Computer-Mediated Interview
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Hsu, Che-Wei
Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be vulnerable to sexual predators as they may not understand the nature of the abuse. In sexual crimes, there is a heavy reliance on the victim’s testimony for conviction because the victim is often the only eyewitness. However, children with ASD typically show characterized deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, which makes them extremely difficult to interview. In general, the amount and accuracy of information extracted from interviews using current methods are often less for ASD individuals than for typically developing children. In this study, we aimed to provide more support for children with ASD in forensic interviews by way of a new interviewing aid: a computer-animated interviewer. A sample of 30 children studying in grades one and two (18:12) were recruited throughout Taiwan, with half of the children diagnosed with ASD (13 boys; 2 girls) (M=7.52, SD=0.71) and the other half being typically developing (TD) (13 boys; 2 girls) (M=7.67, SD=0.66). The children participated in a “scavenger hunting” event and were interviewed a week later regarding the target event, with half of each group being interviewed by the computer and the other half interviewed by a live human. The participants were also asked six misleading questions aimed to examine their suggestibility. Results revealed that both groups of children showed comparable abilities in memory performance (i.e., recall accuracy, recall amount, and response accuracy to misleading questions) when interviewed by the avatar interviewer and the live human interviewer. The results show encouraging implications for future applications.
Subjects
autism spectrum disorder
child sexual abuse
forensic interview
computer interview
avatar
vulnerable eyewitness
SDGs
Type
thesis
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ntu-104-R02227114-1.pdf
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