Gordon, Betty N., Baker-Ward, Lynne, and Ornstein,

Gordon, Betty N., Baker-Ward, Lynne, and Ornstein, Peter A. (June 2001) "Children's testimony: A review of research on memory for past experiences."

Clinical Child & Family Psychology Review. Volume 4(2), 157-181. Retrieved at http://www.wkap.nl/journalhome.htm/1096-4037 on December 7, 2003. Document Link URL:

http://www.wkap.nl/issuetoc.htm/1096-4037+4+2+2001

The goal of the article was to evaluate several recent studies on children's memory the implications for the accuracy of children's testimony in the legal system. Although the studies were not all purely focused on sexual trauma recollections, the implications for legal court battles focusing on these recollections are of particular interest to the authors.

Pertinent to evaluating importance of article is how thoroughly it deals with the question of how memory develops in children over the course of the development process and how this memory may be tampered with.

The article also touches upon the idea, slightly more tangentially of how subjective is autobiographical and/or eyewitness testimony in general.

The authors' hypothesis was that the literature suggests that the information-processing model of memory holds true even very young children. Very young children can remember and report remembered events, however that this ability to recall can and is profoundly influenced by adult suggestion

The methodology used by the authors was a review of the literature regarding the development of memory, specifically in children.

The participants in the studies discussed involved children of various age groups whom were asked to recall various kinds of information.

Some of the studies were purely recall studies. In others, children had to recall past experiences. These experiences were often vividly recalled, even by children of very young ages.

Other studies required children to recollect particularly vivid life events, such as medical experiences with particular emotional significance for the child.

The results of the various studies were confirmed, with an additional caveat that not only do children have a difficulty in differentiating between fantasy and fact, particularly after their recollections have been tampered with or even after having mild suggestions conveyed with them that alters the facts as they transpired, but adults have difficulty in determining when children's memories have been tampered with. The vividness of children to be able to recall information, in other words, should not be assumed to validate the accuracy of these memories.

The implications of this study for the legal system, particularly in regards to sexual abuse are considerable. Memory, the authors note, is a basic prerequisite for children to be assumed competent by the legal system to record their experiences in the form of testimony.