Developmental reversals in false memory: A review of data and theory.

Can susceptibility to false memory and suggestion increase dramatically with age? The authors review the theoretical and empirical literatures on this counterintuitive possibility. Until recently, the well-documented pattern was that susceptibility to memory distortion had been found to decline between early childhood and young adulthood. That pattern is the centerpiece of much expert testimony in legal cases involving child witnesses and victims. During the past 5 years, however, several experiments have been published that test fuzzy-trace theory's prediction that some of the most powerful forms of false memory in adults will be greatly attenuated in children. Those experiments show that in some common domains of experience, in which false memories are rooted in meaning connections among events, age increases in false memory are the rule and are sometimes accompanied by net declines in the accuracy of memory. As these experiments are strongly theory-driven, they have established that developmental improvements in the formation of meaning connections are necessary and sufficient to produce age increases in false memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Innovations for child witnesses: A national survey.

Numerous innovative procedural reforms have been proposed concerning child victims involved in legal cases. In this study, 153 district attorney offices nationwide were surveyed about their use of innovations, their perceptions of the innovations' effectiveness, reasons why they opt not to utilize innovations, and defense strategies used with child witnesses. Prosecutors were also asked about the type of cases they encountered in which children testified. Prosecutors reported mainly using inexpensive, easy-to-implement innovations, which were also typically rated as helpful in reducing children's trauma and enhancing guilty outcomes. Prosecutors reported rarely using expert witnesses and innovations that altered how children were interviewed or how they testified. The most common types of cases in which children testified involved sexual abuse. Frequent defense strategies to challenge child credibility concerned suggestibility, inaccurate memory, coaching, and delays in reporting abuse. Results are discussed in relation to the need for increased social science research on procedural reforms for child witnesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do we need to rethink guidance on repeated interviews?

Within the legal system, children are frequently interviewed about their experiences more than once, with different information elicited in different interviews. The presumed positive and negative effects of multiple interviewing have generated debate and controversy within the legal system and among researchers. Some commentators emphasize that repeated interviews foster inaccurate recall and are inherently suggestive, whereas others emphasize the benefits of allowing witnesses more than 1 opportunity to recall information. In this article, we briefly review the literature on repeated interviewing before presenting a series of cases highlighting what happens when children are interviewed more than once for various reasons. We conclude that, when interviewers follow internationally recognized best-practice guidelines emphasizing open-questions and free memory recall, alleged victims of abuse should be interviewed more than once to ensure that more complete accounts are obtained. Implications for current legal guidelines concerning repeated interviewing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child witnesses in the Canadian criminal courts: Recognizing their capacities and needs.

Until the late 1980s, the Canadian legal system viewed children as inherently unreliable and made little effort to accommodate them. Legislation enacted in 1988 (S.C. 1987 c. 24) permits children to testify without being sworn if they have the "ability to communicate" on "promising to tell the truth." A child may testify from behind a screen or via closed circuit television if this is "necessary to get a full and candid account of the acts complained of" and videotapes of an investigative interview may be played in court if the child "adopts" the contents when testifying. Judges have also changed the common law rules that affect criminal prosecutions when children are witnesses; for example, a child's out-of-court statements may be admitted if this is "necessary" and the statements are "reliable." Judges are more willing to find children to be "reliable witnesses" despite minor inconsistencies in their evidence. Although there continue to be cases of judicial insensitivity and the court process is sometimes very distressing for children, the Canadian legal system is displaying greater recognition of the needs and capacities of child witnesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual abuse victimization and the child witness in Canada: Legal, ethical, and professional issues for psychologists.

The Canadian legal system has made a number of significant reforms in the last few decades regarding the rights of child witnesses and, in particular, the rights of those who have disclosed sexual abuse. This paper provides an overview of the law in Canada as it pertains to child sexual abuse victims and witnesses, and reflects on the role and responsibilities of psychologists who work with child witnesses. It reviews the effects of protection reforms and preparation programs on children who must testify, examines some of the current major issues in the research literature in the area of interviewing and assessing sexually abused children, and considers the role of the psychologists as expert witness in court. In addition, it discusses potential ethical dilemmas for psychologists who work with child witnesses, and proposes recommendations for research and clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intensive filial therapy with child witnesses of domestic violence: A comparison with individual and sibling group play therapy.

The rationale for utilizing filial therapy as a treatment intervention with child witnesses of domestic violence while residing with their mothers in a shelter facility is explored and the effectiveness of an intensive 12-session filial therapy parent training group, conducted within 2-3 weeks, is described (n=11; aged 4-10 yrs). Results of analysis of covariance revealed that child witnesses in the experimental group significantly reduced behavior problems prevalent in child witnesses and significantly increased their self-concept as compared to child witnesses in the non-treatment comparison group. In addition, t-test results showed that mothers who facilitated treatment of the experimental group scored significantly higher after training on both their attitudes of acceptance and their empathic behavior. Comparative analysis revealed that intensive filial therapy as facilitated by the children's mothers was as effective in reducing behavior problems as was intensive individual play therapy and intensive sibling group play therapy as facilitated by professionally trained therapists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eyewitness persuasion: How and how well do fact finders judge the accuracy of adults' and children's memory reports?

Children (aged 5–6 and 9–10 yrs) and adults participated in an eventful laboratory session and provided memory reports of the session. In 3 experiments, college students and parents viewed videotapes of highly accurate and highly inaccurate reports. In 2 experiments, these "fact finders" rated adult witnesses more believable and accurate than younger child witnesses, even when both groups were equally accurate. Perceptions of confidence and consistency mediated credibility judgments. Accurate witnesses were judged more believable and accurate than inaccurate witnesses. Higher perceived confidence, longer free recall, and fewer memory failure admissions were associated with more accurate adult memory reports. Fact finders overused confidence and underused the other cues in achieving modest accuracy discernment. The results suggest how strong and weak memory reports differ and how fact finders may learn to differentiate them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Considerations for experts in assessing the credibility of recovered memories of child sexual abuse: The importance of maintaining a case-specific focus.

In this article, the authors argue that a variety of psychological factors stand in the way of providing expert advice to the courts in terms of assessing the credibility of a complainant's account of sexual abuse when there is a significant delay in reporting. These include difficulties in assessing (a) the complainant's account of how he or she claims to have remembered or forgotten the abuse, (b) whether (and how) the claim of abuse originated within a therapeutic setting, and (c) the difficulty of generalizing from empirical evidence. It is argued that all of these issues can be more easily avoided if experts maintain a case-specific focus. In this article, the authors review both the psychological and legal controversies surrounding the false-recovered memory debate, discuss how courts approach the admissibility and use of recovered memory testimony, and conclude that expert witnesses should carefully consider the above points before drawing general conclusions from the literature and applying them to individual cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the social psychology of hearsay evidence.

The issue of using hearsay evidence in cases involving children's testimony is a difficult one for both the legal scholar and psychological researcher. At best, the psychological research done so far can be considered only a 1st step along a long path of future efforts. The author suggests a framework for future work on hearsay and highlights 2 issues: the fidelity issue, which centers on whether hearsay witnesses provide better or worse accounts of events than do child witnesses; and the calibration issue, which refers to whether jurors give appropriate weight to factors that indicate accuracy or error on the part of the hearsay witness. For each, the author describes specific issues that social and cognitive psychological research indicates are central or problematic ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New era of skepticism regarding children's credibility.

There is increasing skepticism regarding children's credibility. Three sources of this skepticism are discussed. First, the popular media is increasingly skeptical of child witnesses. Whereas press coverage of child victims during the 1980s was largely positive, coverage during the 1990s indicates increasing doubt about children's credibility. Second, some writers in the psychological literature portray children in an unnecessarily negative light, contributing to unwarranted skepticism. Third, the 1994 decision in State v. Michaels is likely to exaggerate doubts about children's memory and suggestibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The tractability of eyewitness confidence and its implications for triers of fact.

A theft staged for 80 unsuspecting undergraduate eyewitnesses was followed by a picture lineup that did or did not contain the thief. In an attempt to see if eyewitness confidence is tractable after the identification, half of the eyewitnesses who identified the thief (accurate witnesses) and half who identified an innocent suspect (inaccurate witnesses) were briefed by a "prosecutor" who suggested they rehearse answers to potential questions that would be asked under cross-examination. Cross-examinations of 10 accurate briefed, 10 accurate nonbriefed, 9 inaccurate briefed, and 9 inaccurate nonbriefed witnesses were viewed by 152 "jurors" in groups of 4 Ss. Briefed eyewitnesses rated themselves as more confident that they had identified the thief than did nonbriefed witnesses. This increase was primarily due to inaccurate eyewitnesses' increasing their confidence, and the briefing manipulation served to eliminate the confidence–accuracy relationship. Jurors were significantly more likely to vote guilty in conditions in which the eyewitness had been briefed than in the nonbriefed conditions. It is argued that briefing eyewitnesses, although legal, simply serves to increase the eyewitnesses' confidence in their memory, not the accuracy of memory. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mock Jurors' Perceptions of Child Witnesses: The Impact of Judicial Warning.

The present study examined the impact of a judicial warning, witness age, and the method of testimony presentation on mock jurors' perceptions of credibility of witnesses and accused, and on guilty verdicts. The participants were 435 undergraduate university students who listened to an audio-taped summary of a theft trial followed by abbreviated instructions to the jury. Witness age was 7, 10, or 23, the jury warning was either present or absent when witnesses were children, and the testimony by the prosecution eyewitness and accused were either presented or summarized. For the taped testimony conditions, the mock witnesses and the accused read a fact pattern describing the events in the case and were audiotaped as they answered a series of questions, which constituted direct and cross-examination. The testimony of the 7-year-old child, compared to the 10-year-old, was associated with lower cognitive competence and higher suggestibility, but also with higher accuracy of recall (lower mistaken recollection) and lower credibility of accused. The pattern of results for appraisal of the older child was more similar to that of an adult witness. The young adult was judged to be less trustworthy than children of either age. While the presence of a warning had no impact on guilty verdicts when a 7-year-old was a witness, there were fewer guilty verdicts when a witness was 10 years old. Participants also made fewer guilty verdicts when a young adult's testimony, compared to conditions involving child witnesses, was presented, but not when it was summarized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intensive group play therapy with child witnesses of domestic violence.

Describes the effectiveness of intensive sibling group play therapy with child witnesses of domestic violence in improving self-concept, reducing internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, and reducing overall behavior problems. A second objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of intensive sibling group play therapy and intensive individual play therapy on the dimensions identified above. 10 children (aged 4–9 yrs) participated in the experimental group and 11 children (aged 4–10 yrs) served as controls. An analysis of covariance revealed children in the experimental group exhibited a significant reduction in total behavior problems, externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, aggression, anxiety, and depression, and a significant improvement in self- esteem. Intensive sibling group play therapy was found equally effective as intensive individual play therapy with child witnesses of domestic violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child hearsay statutes: At once over-inclusive and under-inclusive.

Special child hearsay statutes allow for the admissibility of demonstrably reliable but otherwise inadmissible children's hearsay. These statutes were among other child witness innovations that proliferated in the 1980s and 1990s to redress the proof problems that arise in child sexual abuse prosecutions. The author argues that the special child hearsay statutes are at once over-inclusive and under-inclusive: over-inclusive in that child sexual abuse prosecutions typically include the testimony of the child witness and multiple hearsay witnesses; and under-inclusive in that they allow for the admissibility of children's hearsay in child abuse cases but may require the child declarant to be the child victim, excluding the hearsay statements of other child witnesses, and typically do not apply to the hearsay statements of children who witness crimes other than child abuse, like domestic violence. She proposes reforms to remedy these deficiencies in the special child hearsay statutes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source credibility and perceived expertness of testimony in a simulated child-custody case.

Used a 2?×?2?×?4?×?2 completely randomized, between-S factorial design in a simulated child custody hearing to evaluate the effects of the sex of the S, sex of the witness, experience level of the witness, and witness status (psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, social worker, neighbor) on perceived expertness. 192 male and 192 female undergraduates listened to an audiotape of simulated testimony in a child custody case and subsequently completed a semantic-differential questionnaire embedded with items to evaluate perceived expertise of a source. Ss were assigned to different groups based on the version of testimony heard. Results indicate that experience level and witness status significantly influenced Ss' evaluations of witness expertise. Female Ss rated all witnesses higher in expertness, and there was a trend that suggested female witnesses may be judged as more expert. Results are discussed in reference to implicit notions that people may have of mental health professionals involved in court proceedings and the possible ramifications of the involvement of such professionals in legal matters. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The incredible (and sometimes incredulous) child witness: Child eyewitnesses' sensitivity to source credibility cues.

Witnesses who receive misleading postevent information usually perform more poorly on memory tests than do witnesses who receive only unbiased information. This effect is especially pronounced for young children. For adults, the credibility of the source of the misleading information moderates this effect; misinformation presented by a credible source impairs performance to a greater degree than does misinformation presented by a noncredible source. In the present experiment, preschool children listened to a story accompanied by several illustrations. Later, they watched a videotape of a child, a credible adult, or a discredited adult answering questions about the story. For some children, the person in the videotape provided misleading information. The children's memory reports were impaired only when misinformation was presented by the credible adult, indicating that even young children are sensitive to source credibility cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Countertransference in child psychoanalytic psychotherapy: The emergence of the analyst’s childhood.

The author focuses on a particular type of countertransference with children—the emergence of the therapist’s childhood memories and experiences in child psychotherapy. The revival of these childhood recollections in the analyst is not a barrier or sign of pathology as previously held, but rather in some cases a vital resource that may potentially deepen and facilitate analytic work. The therapist’s memory and attendant fantasies, physical/sensory experience, and affect states in the context of the childhood memory may afford the analyst the opportunity to not only make contact with his or her “self” as a child, but also to further symbolize these states of mind and use them in the exploration of the child patient’s mind. Through intersubjective exchanges with the patient, the analyst’s childhood memories are given new meaning in the context of the therapeutic work with the child patient. The author highlights the uniqueness of countertransference with children as compared with adults. A detailed clinical vignette is presented, organized around the arrival of a memory from the analyst’s childhood and how the analyst made use of it in the transference/countertransference field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The accuracy of parental recall of aspects of child development and of child rearing practices.

Retrospective accounts of child rearing obtained from parents of 3-year-olds were compared with reports they previously gave in the course of a longitudinal study begun with the birth of the child. The parents were quite inaccurate in their memory of details about child rearing practices and early development progress, in spite of the frequent rehearsal of these data due to their participation in the longitudinal study, and in spite of the relatively young age of the children. In-accuracies were greatest for items dealing with the age of weaning and toilet training, the occurrence of thumbsucking, and demand feeding. Inaccuracies tended to be in the direction of the recommendations of experts in child rearing, especially on the part of the mothers. In general, mothers recalled more correctly than fathers. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The enhancement of memory by hypnosis in the legal investigative situation.

The increasing use of hypnosis on North America to enhance or refresh the memories of victims and witnesses of crime is creating concern, both within the professional hypnosis societies and within the legal profession. The authors review current positions on the issue and survey clinical and experimental data bearing on the efficacy of hypnosis as a means of memory enhancement. The 2 main problems associated with the use of hypnosis in the legal investigative context—confabulation and the creation of pseudo-memories—are discussed, with particular reference to the demand characteristics of the investigative context. Some recent court cases where confabulation was demonstrated unequivocally and several recent American state supreme court rulings are presented. The need for stringent safeguards proposed by M. T. Orne (1978) is discussed, and the relevance of the American experience of the past 15 yrs to the Canadian context is emphasized. (French abstract) (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)