Child Maltreatment and Long-Term Memory

法律系统调查的一些最严重的犯罪涉及成年人对童年创伤经历的记忆。允许成年人就儿童受害问题提起刑事和民事诉讼的法律引起了人们对数十年前发生的事件的目击者身份识别的科学和法律兴趣。当遭受早期创伤的成年人被要求识别童年时期经历的法律相关行为的肇事者时，本研究将有助于指导理论和应用。司法系统将受益于科学技术的发展，以在长期拖延后更好地确保目击者身份识别的准确性。这项研究还将为司法部门提供指导，帮助受害者了解儿童时期被要求识别肇事者的技术有效性。这项研究探讨了是否可以通过将基于科学的技术纳入广泛使用的、基于科学的访谈协议（称为“认知访谈”）中来最大限度地减少错误识别。研究目标是检查： (a) 认知访谈结合心理和情境恢复对记录有童年创伤史的成年人目击者识别的影响； (b) 童年时期之前的访谈和排列与没有初次访谈或排列对成人长期认知记忆的影响； (c) 延迟 20 年后照片识别准确性的个体差异预测因子。该研究受益于对大量儿童受害者样本的前瞻性纵向研究。研究人员将收集这些参与者在儿童时期（时间 1）进行评估的第二波数据（时间 2）。参与者正确识别时间 1 个体的能力将在时间 2 以及参与者对识别的置信度进行评估。将分析在时间 1 和 2 测量的个体差异以确定准确性的预测因子。这个创新项目提供了急需的关于有童年创伤史的成年人的目击者记忆的纵向信息。

Some of the most serious crimes investigated by the legal system involve adults' memories of traumatic childhood experiences. Laws that permit adults to initiate criminal and civil actions about childhood victimization have raised scientific and legal interest in eyewitness identification of persons involved in acts that occurred decades ago. The present study will help guide theory and application when adults exposed to early trauma are asked to identify perpetrators of legally relevant actions experienced in childhood. The justice system will profit from development of scientifically based techniques to better ensure the accuracy of eyewitness identifications after long delays. The study will also aid the judiciary by providing guidance about the validity of techniques in cases where victims are asked to identify perpetrators from childhood.This research examines whether false identifications can be minimized through scientifically based techniques incorporated into a widely used, science-based interview protocol, called the Cognitive Interview. The research goals are to examine: (a) effects of the Cognitive Interview with mental and context reinstatement on eyewitness identification in adults who have documented histories of childhood trauma; (b) effects of prior interviews and lineups in childhood versus no initial interviews or lineups on adults' long-term recognition memory; and (c) individual-difference predictors of photo identification accuracy after a 20 year delay. The research benefits from a prospective-longitudinal study of a large sample of child victims. Researchers will collect a second wave of data (Time 2) on these participants assessed earlier as children (Time 1). Participants' abilities to correctly identify Time 1 individuals will be assessed at Time 2 along with the participants' confidence of the identifications. Individual differences measured at Time 1 and 2 will be analyzed to determine predictors of accuracy. This innovative project provides much needed longitudinal information on eyewitness memory in adults with histories of childhood trauma.