Do Dolls and HFDs Assist in Eliciting Information about Touch in Interviews with Children?

The current study aimed to investigate the utility of HFDs and dolls in memory interviews about a touch event. Fifty-three children aged 5 to 7 years experienced a staged event involving innocuous touch. They were interviewed 7 to 11 days later either with a purely verbal interview, the assistance of HFDs, or the assistance of dolls. No significant differences were found in the amount or accuracy of information reported in each interview type, though information was highly accurate in all conditions. This indicates that although props did not offer any additional facilitation to eliciting information from children than verbal interview alone, they also were not harmful to the children's reports. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are discussed.