Eyewitness memory and infantile amnesia in children

我的研究重点是儿童记忆，特别是儿童对压力事件的目击记忆，以及他们回忆起幼年生活中发生的事件的能力，即婴儿健忘症。由于儿童经常在法庭上作证，儿童早期记忆的本质是一个重要的问题，拟议的研究不仅会在我的领域中推进知识，而且对那些从事儿童法医工作的人（例如，法庭，警察和律师）也很有用。几年来，我一直利用自然发生的压力经历，即严重到需要医院急诊室治疗的伤害，来调查儿童对压力事件的目击者记忆。最近我也开始研究儿童的早期记忆。目击者记忆的建议研究：研究人员一直发现，儿童对受伤的记忆存在相当大的个体差异，建议的研究将探索一些有助于解释这种差异的潜在因素，如情感、语言和认知因素。此外，如何采访儿童仍然是一个关键问题；我计划探索不同的方法，重点是鼓励幼儿在开放式回忆中提供更详细的信息。这种研究将改进执法人员审问儿童的方法。婴儿健忘症的研究建议：虽然对成人婴儿健忘症的研究相当多，但儿童的这一现象大多被忽视。很少有研究探讨儿童早期的记忆，个体差异也很普遍。是什么因素影响了这种差异？我打算探讨其中的一些因素，包括年龄、性别、文化、社会和认知因素。学龄前儿童可以回忆和谈论经历，但随着年龄的增长而失去这些记忆，这一事实是一个谜，引起了相当大的公众兴趣（以及法医辩论——特别是因为对婴儿期恢复记忆的报道）。总的来说，我希望能够填补关于儿童记忆的重要信息，既包括他们作为目击者的可靠性，也包括他们早年记忆的性质和发展。

My research focuses on child memory, especially children's eyewitness memory for stressful events and their ability to recall events from their very early life, i.e., infantile amnesia. With children often testifying in court, the nature of early child memory is an important issue, and the proposed research will not only advance knowledge in my field but be useful for those working with children in forensic capacities (e.g., courts, police, & lawyers). For several years I have taken advantage of naturally-occurring stressful experiences, namely injuries serious enough to require hospital ER treatment, to investigate eye-witness memory about stressful events in children. Recently I have also begun studying children's earliest memories. Proposed research in eyewitness memory: Researchers have consistently found considerable individual variation in children's memory for injury and the proposed research will explored some potential factors that contribute to explanations of such variation, such as emotional, language, and cognitive factors. Also, how children are interviewed has remained a key issue; I plan to explore different methods that focus on encouraging young children to provide more elaborative information in open-ended recall. Such research will improve techniques in the method of questioning children used by law enforcement officers. Proposed research in infantile amnesia: Although there has been considerable research on infantile amnesia in adults, this phenomenon in children has mostly been ignored. Little research has explored children's memory for their early years, and individual differences are rife. What factors influence this variation? I intend to explore a number of them, including age, gender, culture, social, and cognitive factors. The fact that preschool-aged children can recall and talk about experiences but lose access to these memories as they get older is a mystery that engenders considerable public interest (and forensic debate - especially because of accounts of recovered memories of infancy). Overall, I hope to fill in important information about children's memory, both in terms of their reliability as eyewitnesses and the nature and development of their memory for their earliest years of life.