Age differences in the interrogative suggestibility of children’s memory: Do shift scores peak around 5–6 years of age?

This research was aimed at testing Scullin and Ceci’s (2001) hypothesis that the tendency to shift answers to misleading questions after negative feedback follows an inverted U-shape developmental pattern peaking some time after the age of 5 years. Distinguishing between different directions of shift, we found a peak at 5.5–6.0 years for shifts from correct answers before feedback to incorrect answers after feedback, but no effect of age for the opposite shift direction. However, the ascending part of this peak disappeared when shift scores were related to the scores of correct answers before feedback. Results suggest that the temporary increase of shift scores does not manifest a temporary increase of the suggestibility to negative feedback.