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。允许成年人就童年受害问题提起刑事和民事诉讼的法律，提高了目击者辨认参与几十年前行为的人的科学和法律兴趣。本研究将有助于指导理论和应用，当暴露于早期创伤的成年人被要求识别在童年经历的具有法律意义的行为的肇事者。司法系统将受益于以科学为基础的技术的发展，以更好地确保长期拖延后目击者身份识别的准确性。这项研究还将通过在受害者被要求识别从小就是肇事者的案件中就技术的有效性提供指导来帮助司法机构。这项研究调查了是否可以通过将基于科学的技术纳入广泛使用的、基于科学的访谈方案来最大限度地减少虚假身份识别，该访谈被称为认知访谈。研究的目标是检验：(A)认知访谈和心理和情境恢复对有童年创伤病史的成年人的目击者识别的影响；(B)童年时期的先前访谈和排列对成年人长期识别记忆的影响；以及(C)延迟20年后照片识别准确性的个体差异预测因素。这项研究得益于对大样本儿童受害者的前瞻性纵向研究。研究人员将收集关于这些参与者的第二波数据(时间2)，这些参与者在儿童时期被评估(时间1)。参与者正确识别时间1个体的能力将在时间2被评估，以及参与者对身份识别的信心。将分析在时间1和时间2测量的个体差异，以确定准确性的预测因子。这一创新项目提供了关于有童年创伤病史的成年人目击者记忆方面亟需的纵向信息。

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.