How parents can shape what children remember: Implications for the testimony of young witnesses.

AUTHORS: GABRIELLE F. PRINCIPE & KAMALA LONDON

Forensic investigations involving children carry heavy consequences and often present immense challenges. Most child maltreatment allegations first occur in an informal setting, where young witnesses discuss legally relevant information with parents before official interviews. Extant studies demonstrate that informal conversations with others outside of investigative interviews are a powerful source of mnemonic influence. Suggestions offered by parents can both intrude into children’s later independent accounts and lead children to make novel and elaborate reports of non-occurring events. The authors argue that parent-child discussions present the single most important challenge faced by contemporary child maltreatment and offer suggestions for future research and legal practice.

Psychological insights into information processing during times of crisis.

AUTHORS: ALIN COMAN

Human societies constantly confront epidemics. To better prepare for these public health crises, it is important to understand how the human mind operates under conditions of risk and uncertainty. This article is presents current research on the acquisition and propagation of medical knowledge in social networks, and reviews psychological findings on how the anxiety that people experience during times of crisis negatively what they pay attention to, what they communicate to others, and what they believe. Finally, specific recommendations are made on how to maximize accurate information dissemination and minimize the spread of misinformation.

Long retention intervals impair the confidence–accuracy relationship for eyewitness recall.

AUTHORS: EMILY R. SPEARING & KIMBERLEY A. WADE

Legal decision makers tend to believe that highly confident eyewitnesses are highly accurate. One factor known to affect eyewitness accuracy is the length of time between witnessing an event and providing a statement. In this study, participants watched a mock crime video and completed a memory test either immediately, after 1 week, or after 1 month. Participants tested immediately or after 1-week answered more questions correctly, were more confident in their answers, and gave confidence judgements that better reflected their memory accuracy than participants tested after 1 month. How people felt about their memory ability did not meaningfully influence their confidence judgments or the usefulness of confidence judgments for predicting eyewitness accuracy. The findings highlight the detrimental effects that long delays can have on eyewitness memory and the importance of collecting witness statements quickly.

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