Individual differences in children’s interrogative suggestibility: The effects of intelligence and executive functions.

In recent decades, there has been increasing interest in the question of children's ability to testify in legal proceedings. Interrogative suggestibility plays a key role on the reliability of testimonials in childhood and the factors that could impact it have great implications in forensic contexts. This study investigated the relationship between interrogative suggestibility and cognitive functioning, assessed in terms of intelligence and executive functions, in 343 children aged 6-11 years. Form B of the Bicocca Suggestibility Scales was employed. The results showed that gender was not related to suggestibility while there was an effect of age. Intelligence and working memory, but also Free and Cued Recall, correlated negatively with Shift, whereas attention skills were independent of suggestibility. Surprisingly, Cued Recall was positively associated with Yield. The implications for child testimony are discussed