City Research Online

Abstract

Children who are witnesses or victims of a traumatic event oftentimes talk about their experiences to a variety of parties. For example, some will talk to friends or their parents and/or will be formally interviewed by the child protection or the police. During such conversations, there is always a chance that children receive questions about details or entire events that were not part of the original experience. When this happens, memory for the original experience can become contaminated resulting in children remembering events that they did not experience. Memories for events which were never truly experienced are also called false memories (e.g.,Loftus, 2005).

Such false memories can exert devastating consequences. To provide some examples, when false memories appear in child protection contexts, families might be torn apart because a child might incorrectly recall having been mistreated by the father (e.g., Erens et al., 2022; Wood & Garven, 2000). In legal contexts, false memories of sexual abuse might lead to false accusations and even wrongful convictions (e.g., Schreiber et al., 2006). Furthermore, such false memories can be damaging as well for those who have come to remember false events, as such memories “feel” as authentic as true memories (Bernstein & Loftus, 2009). In this chapter, we will first present a brief history of several key legal cases that catalysed scientific research on children’s false memories1. We will then present several lines of evidence showing how children’s false memories can be formed and which factors underpin the development of such false memories. Finally, we will discuss ways in which children’s false memories can be prevented or corrected.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	©American Psychological Association, 2024. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in The handbook of child witnesses: Improving psychological science and legal practice. The final article will be available, upon publication, at: https://www.apa.org/pubs/books
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

Export

Downloads