"That never happened": adults' discernment of children's true and false memory reports.

Adults' evaluations of children's reports can determine whether legal proceedings are undertaken and whether they ultimately lead to justice. The current study involved 92 undergraduates and 35 laypersons who viewed and evaluated videotaped interviews of 3- and 5-year-olds providing true or false memory reports. The children's reports fell into the following categories based on a 2 (event type: true vs.

Children's false memory and true disclosure in the face of repeated questions.

The current study was designed to investigate children's memory and suggestibility for events differing in valence (positive or negative) and veracity (true or false). A total of 82 3- and 5-year-olds were asked repeated questions about true and false events, either in a grouped order (i.e.

What can subjective forgetting tell us about memory for childhood trauma?

In the present study, we examined the prevalence and predictors of subjective forgetting (i.e., self-reported amnesia) of child sexual abuse (CSA).

Individual differences in emotional memory: adult attachment and long-term memory for child sexual abuse.

In the present study, attachment-related differences in long-term memory for a highly emotional life event, child sexual abuse (CSA), were investigated. Participants were 102 documented CSA victims whose cases were referred for prosecution approximately 14 years earlier. Consistent with the proposal that avoidant individuals defensively regulate the processing of potentially distressing information (Bowlby, 1980), attachment avoidance was negatively associated with memory for particularly severe CSA incidents.

Childhood sexual assault victims: long-term outcomes after testifying in criminal court.

We report a longitudinal study of long-term outcomes of participating in criminal cases following child sexual abuse (CSA). In the 1980s, 218 child victim/witnesses took part in a study of short-term sequelae of legal involvement. Approximately 12 years later, 174 of them, as well as a comparison group of 41 matched individuals with no CSA history, were interviewed about their mental health and legal attitudes.

Traumatic impact predicts long-term memory for documented child sexual abuse.

Prospective studies of adults' memories of documented child sexual abuse (CSA) reveal that the majority of individuals remember their victimization. However, the accuracy of these memories has rarely been investigated scientifically. The present study examined predictors of memory accuracy and errors 12 to 21 years after abuse ended for individuals with legal experiences resulting from documented CSA.

"If it happened, I would remember it": strategic use of event memorability in the rejection of false autobiographical events.

The present research investigated the link between perceived event memorability and false-event rejection. In 2 studies, event salience, plausibility, and recency were manipulated. Study 1 showed that high-salience events elicited higher memorability ratings than low-salience events for 5-, 7-, 9-year-olds and adults.

Adult attachment style and parental responsiveness during a stressful event.

Despite widespread use of self-report measures of adult attachment, relatively little research has explored the predictive utility of these measures in the domain of parent-child relationships. The present study examined the association between self-reported attachment style and parental responsiveness during a stressful event. Children and their parents were observed while children received an inoculation at a county immunization clinic.

A prospective study of memory for child sexual abuse: new findings relevant to the repressed-memory controversy.

Previous research indicates that many adults (nearly 40%) fail to report their own documented child sexual abuse (CSA) when asked about their childhood experiences. These controversial results could reflect lack of consciously accessible recollection, thus bolstering claims that traumatic memories may be repressed. In the present study, 175 individuals with documented CSA histories were interviewed regarding their childhood trauma.