Rakel P. Larson

Collaboration in associative recognition memory: using recalled information to defend "new" judgments.

S. E. Clark, A. Hori, A. Putnam, and T. J. Martin (2000) showed that collaboration on a recognition memory task produced facilitation in recognition of targets but had inconsistent and sometimes negative effects regarding distractors. They accounted for these results within the framework of a dual-process, recall-plus-familiarity model but showed only weak evidence to support it. The present results of 3 experiments present stronger evidence for Clark et al.s dual-process view and also show why such evidence is difficult to obtain.

Stress, Interviewer Support, and Children's Eyewitness Identification Accuracy

Few studies have investigated how stress affects eyewitness identification capabilities across development, and no studies have investigated whether retrieval context in conjunction with stress affects accuracy. In this study, one hundred fifty-nine 7- to 8- and 12- to 14-year-olds completed a high- or low-stress laboratory protocol during which they interacted with a confederate. Two weeks later, they attempted to identify the confederate in a photographic lineup. The lineup administrator behaved in either a supportive or a nonsupportive manner. Participants who experienced the high-stress event and were questioned by a supportive interviewer were most accurate in rejecting target-absent lineups. Results have implications for debates about effects of stress on eyewitness recall, how best to elicit accurate identifications in children, and developmental changes in episodic mnemonic processes.

Developing Rapport with Children in Forensic Interviews: Systematic Review of Experimental Research

The vast majority of guidelines recommend that developing rapport with children is essential for successful forensic child interviewing; however, the question remains as to whether there is a sufficient body of scientific research to generate evidence-based guidelines for developing rapport with children in legal contexts. To answer this question, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify experimental studies of the effects of rapport-building methods on the reliability of childrens reports. Independent raters applied 12 exclusion criteria to the 2,761 potentially relevant articles located by electronic and hand searches of the literature. Experimental studies were few. Although studies to date are a beginning, the overall scientific base is weak regarding even basic issues such as how to best define rapport and the efficacy of common rapport-building techniques. This systematic review highlights what we know, what we do not know, and how much more we need to know to create evidence-based best practice. Recommendations for reshaping the research agenda are discussed.

Coping style and memory specificity in adolescents and adults with histories of child sexual abuse

ABSTRACT Individuals with histories of childhood trauma may adopt a nonspecific memory retrieval strategy to avoid unpleasant and intrusive memories. In a sample of 93 adolescents and adults with or without histories of child sexual abuse (CSA), we tested the hypothesis that nonspecific memory retrieval is related to an individuals general tendency to use avoidant (i.e., distancing) coping as a personal problem-solving or coping strategy, especially in victims of CSA. We also examined age differences and other individual differences (e.g., trauma-related psychopathology) as predictors of nonspecific memories. Distancing coping was significantly associated with less specific autobiographical memory. Younger age, lower vocabulary scores, and non-CSA childhood maltreatment (i.e., physical and emotional abuse) also uniquely predicted less autobiographical memory specificity, whereas trauma-related psychopathology was associated with more specific memory. Implications for the development of autobiographical memory retrieval in the context of coping with childhood maltreatment are discussed.

Effects of Interviewer Support on Children’s Memory and Suggestibility: Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Experimental Research

The accuracy of children’s reports of abuse has been hotly debated in the press, academia, and the courtroom. Yet, children’s accuracy depends, in part, on the context in which children are interviewed. Guidelines often recommend creating a supportive psychosocial context to promote open, honest responding; however, there is also concern that support promotes social desirability and acquiescence to suggestion, leading children to report more of what they perceive adults want to hear than the truth. The question remains as to whether there is a sufficient body of scientific research to determine whether interviewer supportiveness improves interview outcomes while minimizing children’s stress or whether it increases suggestibility and impairs accuracy. Using a systematic search strategy and meta-analyses, this study identifies and reviews findings from experimental studies of the effects of interviewer supportiveness on the accuracy of children’s reports. Although the number of studies in the evidence base is small (n = 15), the studies are of relatively good quality. Results suggest noncontingent interviewer support bolsters children’s accuracy. Children are more resistant and less acquiescent to suggestive questions when interviewers are supportive as compared to nonsupportive or neutral. Effects are in the moderate range. Interviewer support is also associated with fewer errors on nonsuggestive questions. Discussion focuses on implications for practice; directions for future research; identifying vulnerable subgroups; and underlying cognitive, social, and emotional mechanisms.

Introduction to this Special Issue - Research on Child Victims and Witnesses: From Attitudes and Investigations to Courtroom Decisions.

All too frequently, children are exposed to violence and maltreatment in their homes and communities (Baum, 2005; Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, & Hamby, 2013; White & Lauritsen, 2012). National surveys in the U.S. indicate that nearly one-quarter of children aged 2–17 years witnessed at least one violent crime during the previous 12months, and a similar proportion of individuals will experience child maltreatment within their lifetimes (Finkelhor et al., 2013). Given the high rate of violence exposure during childhood, it is important to understand how children encode, store, and retrieve their memories of violence-related experiences (see Goodman & Melinder, 2007, for a review), how violence against children is viewed and handled by community members and professionals, and how children’s testimony is obtained and evaluated in legal contexts. For this special issue of Behavioral Sciences & the Law, we invited experts in the field to contribute articles related to child victims and witnesses. The topics presented are critical to understanding and assessing children’s eyewitness statements, adults’ views of child discipline practices and sexual victimization, and adults’ evaluations of children’s courtroom testimony. Included are papers of particular relevance to child maltreatment cases, including ones involving sexual trafficking of youth. The topics covered are imbued with both theoretical and practical significance. The order of the manuscripts follows the natural course of the legal process, beginning with the topic of children’s eyewitness memory, and then proceeding to papers on the detection and reporting of maltreatment, children’s participation in court proceedings, juror decision-making, and, finally, legal and community responses. The criminal justice system depends, in part, on the ability of children to provide accurate accounts of the crimes they witness or experience. The first four papers in this special issue evaluate factors that can influence children’s memory and suggestibility, including parent–child discussion, stress and arousal, emotional valence of events, narrative abilities, age, familiarity, and stereotypes. Parent-guided conversations about past events play an important role in the development of children’s autobiographical memory and narrative abilities (Nelson & Fivish, 2004; Reese & Newcombe, 2007; Sales, Fivush, & Peterson, 2003). Previous research on parent–child conversations has largely focused on shared events that both

Introduction to this Issue: Children's Eyewitness Memory and Testimony in Context

Increasingly, children are being called upon to participate in a variety of forensic and courtroom contexts that affect their welfare (Cashmore, 2014; Head, 2011; U.N.General Assembly, 1989). Alongside this movement, research on child witnesses and victims has burgeoned. For this special issue ofBehavioral Sciences and the Law, we invited researchers to share their expertise and contribute current studies about the role of contextual factors on children’s eyewitnessmemory and testimony, and relatedmatters. Topics cover a wide variety of issues pertaining to child witnesses and victims, including the reliability of children’s testimony, forensic interview techniques, participation in court proceedings, prospective juror-decision making, delays in prosecution, and religion-related abuse. To begin this special issue, the first five papers address topics related to children’s involvement in forensic interviews. Given the rising dependence on children’s reports in a variety of forensic and legal contexts, the need for evidence-based methods to elicit sensitive and reliable information from children is clear. Building rapport with children is one procedure that is recommended by virtually all forensic interview protocols and best-practice guidelines, including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Protocol (Lamb, La Rooy, Malloy, & Katz, 2011), the StepWise Interview (Yuille, Hunter, Joffe, & Zaparniuk, 1993), the Memorandum of Good Practice (Davies & Westcott, 1999), the child-adapted version of the Cognitive Interview (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992; Saywitz, Geiselman, & Bornstein, 1992), and the Narrative Elaboration Technique (NET; Saywitz & Camparo, 2013), as part of a successful interview strategy to reduce children’s anxiety and increase the quality, quantity, and accuracy of their reports. In our first paper, Saywitz, Larson, Hobbs, and Wells (pp. 372–389) report on a systematic review of the research literature to evaluate whether there is a core body of experimental studies with randomized controlled trials that test the effects of rapport on the reliability of children’s reports. The paper provides insights into and identifies gaps in the current knowledge base regarding the effects of rapport-building on children’s memory accuracy and offers strategies for redefining future research agendas. Children may be exposed to postevent misinformation before an interview commences and this inaccurate information may become incorporated into their later memory reports (see, e.g., Ceci, Loftus, Leichtman & Bruck, 1994). Schaaf,