When Children Are Asked To Testify, The Recall Should Be Carefully Questioned

This small piece by Sindyan Banoo writing for the NYTimes Science section on September 6, 2011, "Memory Process Takes Years to Fully Develop", bears some careful consideration for lawyers and others who are calling children to testify.

A new study reported in the journal Child Development cautions that the ability to remember the origins of memories develops into adolescence and matures in adulthood.  Excerpt.

"Although memory performance generally improved with age, the ability to trace the source of a memory — evaluated by the second test — was particularly weak in children. Adolescents and adults performed equally well, but with a significant difference.

The participants wore electroencephalogram caps that measured their neural activity. Only adults showed a sophisticated pattern of activity when they were retrieving source memory information, said the study’s lead author, Volker Sprondel, a psychologist at Saarland.

Using behavioral measures alone, the researchers would not have detected the difference between adults and adolescents, Mr. Sprondel said.

The findings suggest, he added, that when children and adolescents are asked to testify, the reliability of their source memory — for example, recalling the first time a certain person was encountered, and where — should be carefully questioned."

Click here for the abstract.