Deborah A. Connolly

Children's memory for complex autobiographical events: Does spacing of repeated instances matter?

Often, when children testify in court they do so as victims of a repeated offence and must report details of an instance of the offence. One factor that may influence childrens ability to succeed in this task concerns the temporal distance between presentations of the repeated event. Indeed, there is a substantial amount of literature on the “spacing effect” that suggests this may be the case. In the current research, we examined the effect of temporal spacing on memory reports for complex autobiographical events. Children participated in one or four play sessions presented at different intervals. Later, children were suggestively questioned, and then participated in a memory test. Superior recall of distributed events (a spacing effect) was found when the delay to test was 1 day (Experiment 1) but there was little evidence for a spacing effect when the delay was 1 week (Experiment 2). Implications for understanding childrens recall of repeated autobiographical events are discussed.

The effect of a judicial declaration of competence on the perceived credibility of children and defendants

Purpose. Three studies were conducted to determine the effect of a judicial declaration of competence on perceptions of credibility towards a child witness and an adult defendant. Methods. Undergraduates read vignettes about a 5- or a 13-year-old child witness or an adult involved in either a sexual assault case or a motor vehicle accident case. In the child conditions, the case was either preceded by a declaration of the childs competence to testify (either specific or general declaration) or there was no mention of the competence of the child. Participants then rated the perceived credibility of both the complainant/witness and the defendant. Results. A judicial declaration of competence that was targeted at the particular child sometimes increased the credibility ratings of the child and decreased those of the defendant, sometimes to levels beyond those observed in the adult conditions. These effects on credibility were not replicated when a general declaration of all childrens competence was used. In fact, the general declaration sometimes resulted in more positive ratings of the defendant. Conclusions. These results are discussed in the context of recommendations for the use of competence evaluations and declarations of competence in court.

Failing to report details of an event: A review of the directed forgetting procedure and applications to reports of childhood sexual abuse

Recent reviews of child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure indicate that many victims delay disclosing abuse for some period of time (e.g., London, Bruck, Ceci, & Shuman, 2005). During this period of non-disclosure, CSA victims may avoid thinking about or discussing their abuse experiences. Some scholars argue that this may lead to a directed forgetting (DF) effect, whereby later recall of the unrehearsed memories becomes more difficult (e.g., M. A. Epstein & Bottoms, 2002). This paper reviews the DF literature and discusses the potential contribution of DF to silence. The review begins with a description of the basic DF protocol used, discusses underlying mechanisms thought to be responsible for the DF effect, and then examines applications of the DF protocol to memory for emotion-laden word lists and autobiographical events. Overall, the applied studies demonstrate that DF effects generalise beyond memory for innocuous word lists; however, we describe several important avenues of research that require further exploration. Most noteworthy, and particularly relevant to the common application of DF to memory for CSA, are those studies that examine the influence of DF on childrens autobiographical memory.

BatMon II: children's category norms for 33 categories.

Four hundred forty-eight children 3–12 years of age generated category exemplars for 33 distinct categories. The percentage of the participants reporting each exemplar, the percentage of the participants reporting each exemplar first, the percentage of the participants reporting each exemplar across age groups (3–5 years, 6–8 years, and 9–12 years), and the mean rank of each exemplar are presented. A full version of the 29 category norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.

Factors Associated with Delays of Days to Decades to Criminal Prosecutions of Child Sexual Abuse

Until the latter part of the 20th century, legal doctrines made it almost impossible to successfully prosecute in criminal court a case involving child sexual abuse (CSA), whether the complaint was timely or delayed. Many English-speaking countries have abrogated most formal legal barriers to prosecuting CSA cases, and courts are faced with the singular challenge of adjudicating sexual offenses against children that are reported to have happened years or decades earlier. We conducted analyses of 4,237 criminal complaints of CSA heard in Canadian criminal courts. There were several differences between timely and delayed prosecutions that led us to conclude that delayed prosecutions of CSA are common and due, in part, to the nature of the offense. Offense duration was associated with longer delays to prosecution. When the accused had access to the child through his position in the community, length of delay to prosecution was very long, particularly for male complainants. More research is needed on delayed CSA prosecutions, particularly given an apparent trend for jurisdictions to abolish barriers to criminal prosecutions of CSA that occurred years or decades earlier.

Children's recall of emotionally arousing, repeated events: A review and call for further investigation

The influence, if any, of emotional arousal on memory is a controversial topic in the literature. Much of the research on memory for emotionally arousing events has focused on a few specific issues (e.g., differences in types of details recalled in emotionally arousing and neutral events; increasing ecological validity). Although gaining more recent attention, a neglected area in the literature has been memory for instances of repeated, emotionally arousing events. This issue has important implications for understanding childrens ability to recall events in a forensic setting. We review existing findings on memory for emotionally arousing events in general and particularly in children, childrens memory for events that occur repeatedly, and then discuss the scarce research on repeated emotionally arousing events and the need for further research in this area. We conclude that although it is clear that children are capable of accurately reporting arousing and repeated experiences, it is also apparent that circumstances both within and outside the control of investigative interviewers influence this ability.

Predicting expert social science testimony in criminal prosecutions of historic child sexual abuse

Purpose. Recently courts in several Common Law jurisdictions have been faced with the daunting task of adjudicating criminal complaints of child sexual assault that are alleged to have occurred in the distant past (historic child sexual abuse; HCSA). In the present data set, alleged offences ended between 2 and 48 years before the trial. These cases, which involve claims of repressed memory and continuous memory for the offence, raise many issues that hitherto had only rarely been faced by criminal courts and that are within the realm of issues studied by social scientists. In this paper we explore variables that predict the presence of a social science expert, called by the prosecution or the defence or an expert called by both sides. Methods. A total of 2,064 actual criminal cases involving HCSA were coded on a variety of variables that were then used to predict the presence of an expert at trial and to predict the presence of an expert to evaluate the perpetrator for sentencing. Results. Six variables predicted the presence of an expert at trial: offence description, frequency of abuse, complainant/accused relationship, complainant age, presence of repression, and complainant gender. Seven variables predicted the presence of an expert at sentencing: offence description, frequency of abuse, length of delay to trial, presence of threat, trial date, plea, and age difference between complainant and accused. Conclusions. We use these archival data to generate hypotheses concerning the observed predictors of the use of expert testimony by courts in HCSA cases. The objective is to encourage more controlled studies of the particular case characteristics about which courts seek guidance from social scientists.

What children recall about a repeated event when one instance is different from the others.

This research examined whether a memorable and unexpected change (deviation details) presented during 1 instance of a repeated event facilitated childrens memory for that instance and whether a repeated event facilitated childrens memory for deviation details. In Experiments 1 and 2, 8-year-olds (N = 167) watched 1 or 4 live magic shows. Children were interviewed about the last or only show, which did or did not contain deviation details. Children reported more accurate information about the instance when deviation details were presented than when they were not, but repeated experience did not improve memory for deviation details. In Experiment 3, children (N = 145; 6- to 11-year-olds) participated in 4 magic shows and answered questions about each one. Deviation details were manipulated such that they caused a change in how the show was experienced (continuous) or had no such effect on the rest of the show (discrete). Younger, but not older, childrens recall of all instances improved when a continuous deviation occurred compared to no deviation. Implications for how deviation details are represented in memory, as well as forensic applications of the findings, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Legal Compensability of Symptoms Associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Canadian Perspective

Canadian courts are increasingly recognizing the legal compensability of symptoms associated with psychological injuries resulting from civil torts. One of the most common psychological injuries that arises following tortious actions is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In this article, a review of the law on the compensability of symptoms of psychological injury generally—and PTSD specifically—is offered. The laws that directly pertain to clinical assessments of psychological injury caused by tortious behavior are highlighted. As the legal system is an important mechanism through which redress for PTSD-related losses may be sought, the literature on personal costs of PTSD is reviewed. Guidelines for mental health professionals who conduct assessments in PTSD civil litigation contexts are offered.

Repeated Interviews About Repeated Trauma from the Distant Past: A Study of Report Consistency

Testing our beliefs about memory for crimes with participants who have memories for crimes is an essential component of research that is meant to be applied outside of the laboratory (e.g., Yuille, Ternes, & Cooper, 2010). This is a challenge, not just because it is difficult to locate and recruit participants with memories for crimes, but because the research is messy: often there is no control group, base truth is not known, and random assignment is impossible (see Paz-Alonso, Ogle, & Goodman, this volume). Notwithstanding these difficulties, applied work is essential if we are to have an impact (see Yuille, present volume). In this spirit, we describe a study in which a woman who reported having been a victim of five armed bank robberies in Montreal, Canada in the 1970s and who recalled the experiences on three separate occasions. First, we explain why this work was undertaken.