Adults often fail to recognize the ambiguity of children's unelaborated responses to “Do you know/remember (DYK/R) if/whether” questions. Two studies examined whether sample questions and/or an explicit instruction would improve adults' ability to recognize referential ambiguity in children's testimony. In Study 1 (N = 383), participants rarely recognized referential ambiguity in the sample questions or in children's testimony, and answering sample questions had no influence on their ability to detect ambiguity in children's testimony. Study 2 (N = 363) attempted to clarify the meaning of ambiguity for participants with explicit instructions. Results revealed that although an explicit instruction improved performance on sample questions, this also led to an overcorrection, and instructions and sample questions only modestly improved adults' ability to recognize referential ambiguity in children's testimony. Ultimately, the absence of an effective strategy for alerting adults to the problem of referential ambiguity highlights the dangers of DYK/R if/whether questions.

中文翻译：

---

教成人识别儿童证词中的指称歧义的困难：明确指导和样本问题的影响

成年人通常无法认识到儿童对“你知道/记得（DYK/R）如果/是否”问题的未详细说明的含糊不清。两项研究检验了样本问题和/或明确的指导是否会提高成年人识别儿童证词中的指称歧义的能力。在研究 1 ( N  = 383) 中，参与者很少认识到样本问题或儿童证词中的指称歧义，回答样本问题对他们发现儿童证词中的歧义的能力没有影响。研究 2 ( N = 363) 试图通过明确说明为参与者澄清歧义的含义。结果表明，虽然明确的指导提高了样本问题的表现，但这也导致了过度纠正，而且指导和样本问题只能适度提高成年人识别儿童证词中指称歧义的能力。最终，由于缺乏有效的策略来提醒成年人注意指称歧义问题，这凸显了 DYK/R if/whether 问题的危险性。