Relations between suggestibility, working memory and response inhibition in middle childhood

Individual difference in children’s interrogative suggestibility should be theoretically associated with working memory and response inhibition skills. Yet, previous studies have reached mixed conclusions regarding the role of cognitive factors. In the present research, we re-examined this question in a sample of 203 children attending primary or middle school. They were administered the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, a verbal span task (to measure the capacity of the phonological loop), and two inhibitory tasks (the Stroop Color and Word Test and the Global–Local Task). In line with our predictions, children having higher span scores were less suggestible than children having lower span scores (although the effect did not survive after controlling for class differences). On the other hand, the associations with inhibitory measures were null or even in contrast with our expectations, showing lower suggestibility indices in children who were less efficient in inhibiting the elaboration of the semantic meaning of words in the Stroop test. We conclude that individual differences in working memory and inhibitory skills have a limited impact on interrogative suggestibility, at least during middle childhood.