The impact of memory (mis)beliefs on public health and justice outcomes

关于记忆功能的不准确信念的影响引起了科学界和社会的关注；有争议的记忆信念和相关的风险治疗再次流行起来。经验表明，记忆错误可能会导致严重的不良健康和司法结果。在治疗环境中，潜在的关键负面健康结果是：有争议的诊断，增加患者的痛苦，自我伤害和自杀意念，对儿童性虐待和家庭破裂的错误或不准确记忆的发展。在司法环境中，潜在的主要负面结果是：错误的指控决定，无意中对证人访谈的污染以及可能导致不安全判决的不正确的证据可靠性确定。这项研究旨在扩大英格兰和威尔士的健康和司法专业人员对记忆错误的范围和原因的现有学术认识。它还提出了两个新的研究方向，通过(i)调查相关专业人员关于记忆功能的培训内容和（ii）跟踪在治疗中促进或产生儿童性虐待记忆的个别情况下的健康和司法结果来增加科学理解。该研究将采用定量和定性混合的方法，并通过自填问卷、面对面访谈和回顾性审查临床和司法案件档案来收集信息。总的研究目标是提高对记忆功能和错误的认识，以及在调查和解释长期记忆回忆时需要谨慎。研究数据可能表明需要改进治疗规范和专业教育。在依赖长期记忆来证明犯罪的案件中，这也可能使刑事法庭的指导意见得到修订。

The impact of inaccurate beliefs about memory function is a cause for scientific and societal concern;controversial memory beliefs and associated risky treatments are again gaining currency. Experienceshows memory misbeliefs may contribute to non-trivial adverse health and justice outcomes. Potentialkey negative health outcomes in therapeutic settings are: contentious diagnoses, increased patientdistress, self-harm and suicidal ideation, the development of false or inaccurate memories for childsexual abuse and family fragmentation. Potential key negative outcomes in justice settings are: wrongcharging decisions, inadvertent contamination of witness interviews and incorrect evidential reliabilitydeterminations that may contribute to unsafe verdicts.This research aims to amplify existing scholarly awareness of the range and causes of memory misbeliefsamongst health and justice professionals in England and Wales. It also proposes two novel researchstrands to increase scientific understanding by (i) investigating relevant professionals' training contenton memory function and (ii) tracking health and justice outcomes in individual cases where memories forchild sexual abuse are facilitated or arise within therapy. The research will use mixed quantitative andqualitative methods and gather information via self-completion questionnaires, face-to-face interviewsand retrospectively review clinical and justice case files.The overall research objective is to improve awareness of memory function and fallibility and the needfor caution when investigating and interpreting long- term memory recall. Research data may indicatethe need for improved therapeutic regulation and professional education. It may also warrant revisedcrown court guidance in cases reliant on long-term memory to prove the crime.