39. Young Children’S Difficulty With Indirect Speech Acts: Implications For Questioning Child Witnesses, Angela D. Evans, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Kang Lee, Thomas D. Lyon
Oct 2014
39. Young Children’S Difficulty With Indirect Speech Acts: Implications For Questioning Child Witnesses, Angela D. Evans, Stacia N. Stolzenberg, Kang Lee, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Prior research suggests that infelicitous choice of questions can significantly underestimate children’s actual abilities, independently of suggestiveness. One possibly difficult question type is indirect speech acts such as “Do you know…” questions (DYK, e.g., “Do you know where it happened?”). These questions directly ask if respondents know, while indirectly asking what respondents know. If respondents answer “yes,” but fail to elaborate, they are either ignoring or failing to recognize the indirect question (known as pragmatic failure). Two studies examined the effect of indirect speech acts on maltreated and non-maltreated 2- to 7-year-olds’ post-event interview responses. Children were read a story …
16. Child Witnesses And Imagination: Lying, Hypothetical Reasoning, And Referential Ambiguity., Thomas D. Lyon
Jul 2013
16. Child Witnesses And Imagination: Lying, Hypothetical Reasoning, And Referential Ambiguity., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Children's resistance to unpleasant hypotheticals undermines their apparent understanding of the truth and lies. Better understanding of children's developmental limitations, improved questioning, and objections to developmentally insensitive questions could improve children's performance.
28. Right And Righteous: Children's Incipient Understanding Of True And False Statements, Thomas D. Lyon, Jodi A. Quas, Nathalie Carrick
Dec 2012
28. Right And Righteous: Children's Incipient Understanding Of True And False Statements, Thomas D. Lyon, Jodi A. Quas, Nathalie Carrick
Thomas D. Lyon
Two studies examined young children's early understanding and evaluation of truth-telling and lying, and the role that factuality plays in their judgments. Study 1 (104 2- to 5-year-olds) found that even the youngest children reliably accepted true statements and rejected false statements, and that older children's ability to label true and false statements as "truth" and "lie" emerged in tandem with their positive evaluation of true statements and "truth" and their negative evaluation of false statements and "lie." The findings suggest that children's early preference for factuality develops into a conception of "truth" and "lie" that is linked both to …
6. Lyon, T. D. (2005). Ten Step Investigative Interview. [Spanish Version]., Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2012
6. Lyon, T. D. (2005). Ten Step Investigative Interview. [Spanish Version]., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
No abstract provided.
8. Child Witnesses And The Confrontation Clause., Thomas D. Lyon, Julia A. Dente
Apr 2012
8. Child Witnesses And The Confrontation Clause., Thomas D. Lyon, Julia A. Dente
Thomas D. Lyon
After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Crawford v. Washington that a criminal defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him is violated by the admission of testimonial hearsay that has not been cross-examined, lower courts have overturned convictions in which hearsay from children was admitted after child witnesses were either unwilling or unable to testify. A review of social scientific evidence regarding the dynamics of child sexual abuse suggests a means for facilitating the fair receipt of children’s evidence. Courts should hold that defendants have forfeited their confrontation rights if they exploited a child’s vulnerabilities such that they could reasonably …
27. Does Valence Matter? Effects Of Negativity On Children's Early Understanding Of Truths And Lies., Lindsay Wandrey, Jodi A. Quas, Thomas D. Lyon
Mar 2012
27. Does Valence Matter? Effects Of Negativity On Children's Early Understanding Of Truths And Lies., Lindsay Wandrey, Jodi A. Quas, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Early deceptive behavior often involves acts of wrongdoings on the part of children. As a result, it has often been assumed, although not tested directly, that children are better at identifying lies about wrongdoing than lies about other activities. We tested this assumption in two studies. In Study 1, 67 3- to 5-year-olds viewed vignettes in which a character truthfully or falsely claimed to have committed a good or bad act. Children were biased to label claims that the character had committed a good act as the truth and claims that the character had committed a bad act as lies. …
11. Twenty-Five Years Of Interviewing Research And Practice: Dolls, Diagrams, And The Dynamics Of Abuse Disclosure., Thomas D. Lyon
Feb 2012
11. Twenty-Five Years Of Interviewing Research And Practice: Dolls, Diagrams, And The Dynamics Of Abuse Disclosure., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
A great deal of research in the past 25 years has contributed to our understanding of how best to interview children about suspected maltreatment. The disastrous failures of the highly publicized daycare abuse cases led to a flood of research, initially emphasizing the failures of conventional approaches, and more recently highlighting the potential for eliciting complete and accurate reports. If a child has disclosed abuse, and is willing to disclose again, we know what to do. Research supports the use of interview instructions, narrative practice rapport building, and the use of open ended questions to elicit and to elaborate on …
26. “How Did You Feel?”: Increasing Child Sexual Abuse Witnesses’ Production Of Evaluative Information., Thomas D. Lyon, Nicholas Scurich, Karen Choi, Sally Handmaker, Rebecca Blank
Dec 2011
26. “How Did You Feel?”: Increasing Child Sexual Abuse Witnesses’ Production Of Evaluative Information., Thomas D. Lyon, Nicholas Scurich, Karen Choi, Sally Handmaker, Rebecca Blank
Thomas D. Lyon
In child sexual abuse cases, the victim’s testimony is essential, because the victim and the perpetrator tend to be the only eyewitnesses to the crime. A potentially important component of an abuse report is the child’s subjective reactions to the abuse. Attorneys may ask suggestive questions or avoid questioning children about their reactions, assuming that children, given their immaturity and reluctance, are incapable of articulation. We hypothesized that How questions referencing reactions to abuse (e.g., “howdid you feel”) would increase the productivity of children’s descriptions of abuse reactions. Two studiescompared the extent to which children provided evaluative content, defined as …
25. Maltreated Children’S Ability To Estimate Temporal Location And Numerosity Of Placement Changes And Court Visits., Lindsay Wandrey, Thomas D. Lyon, Jodi A. Quas, William J. Friedman
Sep 2011
25. Maltreated Children’S Ability To Estimate Temporal Location And Numerosity Of Placement Changes And Court Visits., Lindsay Wandrey, Thomas D. Lyon, Jodi A. Quas, William J. Friedman
Thomas D. Lyon
Research examining children’s temporal knowledge has tended to utilize brief temporal intervals and singular, neutral events, and is not readily generalizable to legal settings in which maltreated children are asked temporal questions about salient, repeated abuse that often occurred in the distant past. To understand how well maltreated children can describe temporal location and numerosity of documented, personal experiences, we assessed 167 6- to 10-year-old maltreated children’s temporal memory for changes in their living arrangements and prior visits to court. Small percentages of children were capable of providing exact temporal location information (age, month, or season) regarding their first or …
24. Interviewing Children Versus Tossing Coins: Accurately Assessing The Diagnosticity Of Children’S Disclosures Of Abuse., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern, Nicholas Scurich
Jul 2011
24. Interviewing Children Versus Tossing Coins: Accurately Assessing The Diagnosticity Of Children’S Disclosures Of Abuse., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern, Nicholas Scurich
Thomas D. Lyon
We describe a Bayesian approach to evaluating children’s abuse disclosures and review research demonstrating that children’s disclosure of genital touch can be highly probative of sexual abuse, with the probative value depending on disclosure spontaneity and children’s age. We discuss how some commentators understate the probative value of children’s disclosures by: confusing the probability of abuse given disclosure with the probability of disclosure given abuse, assuming that children formally questioned about sexual abuse have a low prior probability of sexual abuse, misstating the probative value of abuse disclosure, and confusing the distinction between disclosure and nondisclosure with the dstinction between …
15. Assessing The Competency Of Child Witnesses: Best Practice Informed By Psychology And Law., Thomas D. Lyon
Jun 2011
15. Assessing The Competency Of Child Witnesses: Best Practice Informed By Psychology And Law., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Truth-lie competency, which concerns the child's understanding of the difference between truth and lies and the importance of telling the truth, can be demonstrated by asking the child whether simple statements are the truth, and by asking the child to promise to tell the truth. Tests of children's truth-lie competency do not predict honesty, but eliciting a child's promise to tell the truth does increase honesty.
5. Ahern, E. C., & Lyon, T. D. (2011). Supplemental Investigative Interview Questions., Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2010
5. Ahern, E. C., & Lyon, T. D. (2011). Supplemental Investigative Interview Questions., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
No abstract provided.
23. Assessing Children’S Competency To Take The Oath In Court: The Influence Of Question Type On Children’S Accuracy., Angela D. Evans, Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2010
23. Assessing Children’S Competency To Take The Oath In Court: The Influence Of Question Type On Children’S Accuracy., Angela D. Evans, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
This study examined children’s accuracy in response to truth–lie competency questions asked in court.The participants included 164 child witnesses in criminal child sexual abuse cases tried in Los AngelesCounty over a 5-year period (1997–2001) and 154 child witnesses quoted in the U.S. state and federalappellate cases over a 35-year period (1974 –2008). The results revealed that judges virtually never foundchildren incompetent to testify, but children exhibited substantial variability in their performance based on question-type. Definition questions, about the meaning of the truth and lies, were the most difficultlargely due to errors in response to “Do you know” questions. Questions about …
22. Young Children’S Emerging Ability To Make False Statements., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern, Jodi A. Quas
Apr 2010
22. Young Children’S Emerging Ability To Make False Statements., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern, Jodi A. Quas
Thomas D. Lyon
This study examined the origins of children’s ability to make consciously false statements, a necessary component of lying. Children 2 to 5 years of age were rewarded for claiming that they saw a picture of a bird when viewing pictures of fish. They were asked outcome questions (“Do you win/lose?”), recognition questions (“Do you have a bird/fish?”), and recall questions (“What do you have?”), which were hypothesized to vary in difficulty depending on the need for consciousness of falsity (less for outcome questions) and self-generation of an appropriate response (more for recall questions). The youngest children (21⁄2 to 31⁄2 years …
14. Investigative Interviewing Of The Child., Thomas D. Lyon
Feb 2010
14. Investigative Interviewing Of The Child., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Children, if questioned in a supportive manner, are capable of providing enormous amounts of productive information in response to open-ended questions. The irony is that many direct and suggestive methods once thought necessary to overcome abused children's reluctance to disclose abuse have been found counterproductive in two ways: they minimize the number of details in true allegations at the same time that they increase the risk of false allegations.
21. Children’S Reasoning About Disclosing Adult Transgressions: Effects Of Maltreatment, Child Age, And Adult Identity., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern, Lindsay A. Malloy, Jodi A. Quas
Feb 2010
21. Children’S Reasoning About Disclosing Adult Transgressions: Effects Of Maltreatment, Child Age, And Adult Identity., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern, Lindsay A. Malloy, Jodi A. Quas
Thomas D. Lyon
A total of two hundred ninety-nine 4- to 9-year-old maltreated and nonmaltreated children of comparable socioeconomic status and ethnicity judged whether children should or would disclose unspecified transgressions of adults (instigators) to other adults (recipients) in scenarios varying the identity of the instigator (stranger or parent), the identity of the recipient (parent, police, or teacher), and the severity of the transgression (‘‘something really bad’’ or ‘‘something just a little bad’’). Children endorsed more disclosure against stranger than parent instigators and less disclosure to teacher than parent and police recipients. The youngest maltreated children endorsed less disclosure than nonmaltreated children, but …
12. Disclosure Of Child Sexual Abuse., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern
Oct 2009
12. Disclosure Of Child Sexual Abuse., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern
Thomas D. Lyon
The research supports the proposition that CSA victims often delay disclosure or fail altogether to disclose abuse and that delays and nondisclosure are most common among children abused by a familiar person, especially a family member living in the child's household. The implications of the research are that inconsistencies and recantations in children's reports may be due to reluctance rather than a false allegation.
20. Maltreated And Non-Maltreated Children’S Evaluations Of Emotional Fantasy., Nathalie Carrick, Thomas D. Lyon, Jodi A. Quas
Jan 2009
20. Maltreated And Non-Maltreated Children’S Evaluations Of Emotional Fantasy., Nathalie Carrick, Thomas D. Lyon, Jodi A. Quas
Thomas D. Lyon
Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine differences between maltreated and nonmaltreated children’s ability to differentiate emotionally evocative fantastic and real events.
Methods: Four- and 5-year-old (n = 145) maltreated and nonmaltreated children viewed images depicting positive and negative fantastic and real events and reported whether the events could occur in real life and how the images made them feel. Children also completed a measure of verbal ability.
Results: Maltreated children were more accurate than nonmaltreated children in stating that negative real events could occur, but less accurate in stating that frightening fantastic events …
Lyon, T.D., Lamb, M.E., & Myers, J.E.B. (In Press). [Legal And Psychological, Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2008
Lyon, T.D., Lamb, M.E., & Myers, J.E.B. (In Press). [Legal And Psychological, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
No abstract provided.
10. Witnesses, Children As Legal., Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2008
10. Witnesses, Children As Legal., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Child witnesses present challenges for both law and psychology. The question is how to elicit statements from children without sacrificing the truth, the rights of those against whom the child is testifying, and the welfare of the child.
9. Authors’ Response To Vieth, Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2008
9. Authors’ Response To Vieth, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
In 2007, Lamb, Orbach, Hershkowitz, Esplin, and Horowitz published in Child Abuse & Neglect a review of empirical research on the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol in which they provided extensive research supporting the conclusion that the NICHD Protocol “comprises a useful and usable set of guidelines that allow trained interviewers to conduct investigative interviews that hew more closely than they otherwise would to universally endorsed professional guidelines” (p. 1212).
19. Young Children’S Competency To Take The Oath: Effects Of Task, Maltreatment, And Age., Thomas D. Lyon, Nathalie Carrick, Jodi A. Quas
Dec 2008
19. Young Children’S Competency To Take The Oath: Effects Of Task, Maltreatment, And Age., Thomas D. Lyon, Nathalie Carrick, Jodi A. Quas
Thomas D. Lyon
This study examined maltreated and non-maltreated children’s (N = 183) emerging understanding of ‘‘truth’’ and ‘‘lie,’’ terms about which they are quizzed to qualify as competent to testify. Four- to six-year-old children were asked to accept or reject true and false (T/F) statements, label T/F statements as the ‘‘truth’’ or ‘‘a lie,’’ label T/F statements as ‘‘good’’ or ‘‘bad,’’ and label ‘‘truth’’ and ‘‘lie’’ as ‘‘good’’ or ‘‘bad.’’ The youngest children were at ceiling in accepting/rejecting T/F statements. The labeling tasks revealed improvement with age and children performed similarly across the tasks. Most children were better able to evaluate ‘‘truth’’ …
4. Lyon, T. D. (2007). Interviewing Children: Getting More With Less. [Powerpoint Notes]. Professionals Who Interview Children Can Obtain A Free Copy Of The Dvd From Lcoleman@Law.Usc.Edu., Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2008
4. Lyon, T. D. (2007). Interviewing Children: Getting More With Less. [Powerpoint Notes]. Professionals Who Interview Children Can Obtain A Free Copy Of The Dvd From Lcoleman@Law.Usc.Edu., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
No abstract provided.
3. National Association Of Counsel For Children And American Professional Society On The Abuse Of Children In Support Of Respondent, Giles V. California., Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2007
3. National Association Of Counsel For Children And American Professional Society On The Abuse Of Children In Support Of Respondent, Giles V. California., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
No abstract provided.
9. Domestic Violence And Child Protection: Confronting The Dilemmas In Moving From Family Court To Dependency Court., Thomas D. Lyon, Mindy B. Mechanic
Dec 2005
9. Domestic Violence And Child Protection: Confronting The Dilemmas In Moving From Family Court To Dependency Court., Thomas D. Lyon, Mindy B. Mechanic
Thomas D. Lyon
The overlap between domestic violence and child maltreatment has received an enormous amount of attention from domestic violence advocates, child advocates, policymakers, and researchers. The goals of empowering victims of domestic violence, usually women, and protecting children from abuse and neglect, usually by men, are theoretically compatible and mutually reinforcing. However, advocacy for battered mothers and protection for maltreated children have developed along different paths, leading to conflict and distrust (Edleson, 1999).
2. Assessing Children's Competence To Take The Oath: Research And Recommendations., Thomas D. Lyon
Apr 1996
2. Assessing Children's Competence To Take The Oath: Research And Recommendations., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
With all of the attention paid to children's performances as witnesses once on the stand, their ability to qualify to take the stand has been relatively neglected. Most courts require that in order to testify, a witness must first take the oath. In its most simple form, an oath is a promise to tell the truth. Taking the oath presupposes that one understands what it means to tell the truth, and that one appreciates one’s obligation to tell the truth when promising to do so. If a young child does not understand the difference between the truth and lies, or …
