Listen to the hand
By Brooke O'Neill, AM'04
Photography by Allen Carroll
Eyewitness testimony has long been subject to skepticism. Chicago psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow and Northwestern researcher Sara C. Broaders, AM'99, PhD'03, have found that gestures that accompany speech may lead child witnesses to misreport events.
In a study published in the April Psychological Science, 39 five- and six-year-olds watched a musician play multiple instruments. Interviewers then interrogated each child using two question types: open-ended (for example, "What else was he wearing?") and specific ("Was he wearing a hat?" or "Did he play an instrument like a guitar?").
When asked whether the musician wore a hat-he didn't-young subjects were more likely to say "yes" when the interviewer gestured as if putting on a hat. Even if the interviewer did not mention a hat in the question, 77 percent of children reported one if they saw the gesture. The findings raise concern that interview transcripts and videos, which omit interrogators' gestures, leave out critical clues.
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