An issue in developmental psychology that is a common topic of research is the question of whether or not the testimony of young children can be trusted. Can they recognize perpetrators or even remember events accurately? The answers to these questions should inform how children are questioned as eyewitnesses in the courtroom, and since many people aren’t as educated in this topic, it important for a policy to be implemented to ensure that findings from recent research are being used to effectively utilize children as eyewitnesses. There are three main topics of applicable research that I will discuss in this paper, and they are: use of initial exhaustive recall to avoid retrieval-induced forgetting, eye closure in recalling events, and repeating
…show more content…
Two major issues in long-term memory for children are increased suggestibility and errors in source monitoring. This means that they can take false information into their brain and keep that as an actual memory and they can have problems remembering the source of where they learned a piece of information.
More and more studies have been conducted investigating the validity of children’s eyewitness testimony and strategies for improving their accuracy. Several studies have been conducted on the long-term memory effects of eye closure on children’s eyewitness testimony. Children can be informative witnesses, but the quality of information they provide is influenced by factors such as the kind of retrieval mechanisms engaged and the quality of communication between the child witness and the adult interviewer. The “cognitive load” hypothesis is that people have a limited amount of “cognitive resources” and that closing the eyes may help to reduce any interference from external stimulation (Natali, Marucci & …show more content…
Studies have been conducted to show why initial incomplete interviews could pose a cost to unretrieved information. This finding is called retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). In a study by Phenix and Price (2012), 148 children experienced four related play sessions across four days, followed by word stem retrieval practice of half of the items and a cued recall task that took place either 15 minutes or 2 hours later. Children in both grades 2 and 4 were susceptible to retrieval-induced forgetting using related episodic memories of details that occurred both within a single day and across multiple days. The appearance of retrieval-induced forgetting was dependent upon the length of delay between the practice and test phases and the temporal distribution of events. Data showed that even when RIF in children is present, it might be a short-lived phenomenon if the related memories are of details that occurred in the same day. The more applicable condition of having events occur over multiple days and a long delay condition showed effects of retrieval-induced forgetting. This is important to consider because it could be a forgetting mechanism that children use when recalling repeated victimization. The risks associated with partial retrieval must be considered when retrieval strategies are developed for
Two major issues in long-term memory for children are increased suggestibility and errors in source monitoring. This means that they can take false information into their brain and keep that as an actual memory and they can have problems remembering the source of where they learned a piece of information.
More and more studies have been conducted investigating the validity of children’s eyewitness testimony and strategies for improving their accuracy. Several studies have been conducted on the long-term memory effects of eye closure on children’s eyewitness testimony. Children can be informative witnesses, but the quality of information they provide is influenced by factors such as the kind of retrieval mechanisms engaged and the quality of communication between the child witness and the adult interviewer. The “cognitive load” hypothesis is that people have a limited amount of “cognitive resources” and that closing the eyes may help to reduce any interference from external stimulation (Natali, Marucci & …show more content…
Studies have been conducted to show why initial incomplete interviews could pose a cost to unretrieved information. This finding is called retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). In a study by Phenix and Price (2012), 148 children experienced four related play sessions across four days, followed by word stem retrieval practice of half of the items and a cued recall task that took place either 15 minutes or 2 hours later. Children in both grades 2 and 4 were susceptible to retrieval-induced forgetting using related episodic memories of details that occurred both within a single day and across multiple days. The appearance of retrieval-induced forgetting was dependent upon the length of delay between the practice and test phases and the temporal distribution of events. Data showed that even when RIF in children is present, it might be a short-lived phenomenon if the related memories are of details that occurred in the same day. The more applicable condition of having events occur over multiple days and a long delay condition showed effects of retrieval-induced forgetting. This is important to consider because it could be a forgetting mechanism that children use when recalling repeated victimization. The risks associated with partial retrieval must be considered when retrieval strategies are developed for