Assessing the Role of Familiarity in Eyewitness Memory and Suggestibility

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

Title: Assessing the Role of Familiarity in Eyewitness Memory and Suggestibility Abstract: In legal cases involving child victims of abuse or maltreatment, the person under suspicion often is someone with whom the child is familiar. Yet, most scientific studies on child eyewitness memory examine accuracy and suggestibility concerning briefly-seen strangers. There are important theoretical reasons to indicate that familiarity and relationship factors affect young children's memory and suggestibility. This project will investigate children's abilities to recount accurately their experiences and their willingness to reveal transgressions. This project will examine the effects of first-hand person knowledge and socioemotional influences on young children's eye witness reports. Employing an experimental approach, the first study concerns children's memory and suggestibility for an event involving a familiar person versus a stranger. The second study will investigate individual predictors of children's eyewitness memory for a moderately stressful event experienced with their father. For both experiments, assessments of intelligence, mental health, family conflict, and personality will be included to pinpoint significant relations. This research will provide new theoretically driven scientific knowledge about children's eyewitness memory, which in turn will inform the legal system how best to balance protecting children from victimization and protecting adults from false accusations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.