The development of children's source-monitoring skills

许多针对儿童的犯罪（例如性虐待）几乎没有留下物证，也没有证人，因此受害者的陈述往往构成最重要的证据。有时，儿童是多重罪行的受害者（例如，反复虐待），只有当儿童记得每一事件的细节时，才有可能成功起诉。然而，研究表明，孩子们有时会混淆对不同事件的记忆，在报告一个事件的细节时，就好像它们发生在另一个事件中一样。即使只发生了一起犯罪，孩子们也可能会把他们对犯罪的记忆与仅仅是在谈论发生了什么时向他们暗示的信息混淆起来。当孩子对不同事件的记忆混淆时，起诉是困难的，而且，在我们了解为什么会出现混淆之前，很难知道如何预防它们。我将系统地调查为什么3-10岁的孩子会混淆不同事件的记忆。例如，孩子们可能没有意识到他们正在犯错误，因此不纠正自己。或者，孩子们可能不会注意到事件之间的差异，认为它们是相同的。在拟议的研究中，孩子们将经历几件事，然后接受采访，看看他们记得什么。事件和采访的各个方面将被处理，以分离出儿童困难的确切原因。每一组研究都侧重于一个特定领域的能力（例如，记忆力、对自己错误的认识、尝试新策略的能力）。此外，孩子们将被给予一系列的措施来评估其他技能（如语言）的发展，这些技能被认为与区分记忆的能力有关。这项研究将指出哪些特定的技能是防止困惑所必需的，以及孩子在什么年龄掌握这些技能。我们将对儿童的记忆有更丰富的了解，因为他们的困惑将在其他发展里程碑的背景下进行研究。结果将提供对儿童证人的准确期望，并建议采用新颖的访谈技术，以尽量减少混淆。这些事态发展将增加起诉侵害儿童罪行的机会。

Many crimes against children (e.g., sexual abuse) leave little physical evidence and have no witnesses, and so the victims' accounts often constitute the most important evidence. Sometimes, children are victims of multiple crimes (e.g., repeated abuse) and successful prosecution is possible only if children remember the details about each individual incident. Research has shown, however, that children sometimes confuse memories of different events, reporting details from one event as if they had happened in another. Even when there has been a single crime, children may confuse their memories of the crime with information that was merely suggested to them when talking about what happened. Prosecution is difficult when children confuse memories of different events and, until we understand why confusions occur, it is difficult to know how to prevent them. I will systematically investigate why 3-10 year olds confuse memories of different events. Children may not, for example, realize that they are making errors and so do not correct themselves. Alternatively, children may not pay attention to the differences between events, believing them to be identical. In the proposed research, children will experience several events and later be interviewed to see what they remember. Various aspects of the events and interviews will be manipulated to isolate the exact causes of children's difficulties. Each set of studies focuses on competency in one specific area (e.g., memory, awareness of one's own errors, ability to try new strategies). In addition, children will be given a battery of measures to assess the development of other skills (e.g., language) believed to be related to the ability to discriminate between memories. The research will indicate which specific skills are necessary to prevent confusions and at what ages children master these skills. We will have a richer understanding of children's memory because their confusions will be studied in the context of other developmental milestones. The results will provide accurate expectations of child witnesses and suggest novel interviewing techniques that minimize confusions. These developments will increase the chances of prosecuting crimes against children.