ABSTRACT
Once children enter the legal system, as victims or witnesses, they are interviewed multiple times by multiple people before giving testimony in court (Myers, 1987). Interestingly, “common sense” beliefs about the effects of repeated interviews on children’s memories and/or reports of what transpired lead to contradictory conclusions. On the one hand, it is argued that repeatedly recalling an event helps children (and adults) to consolidate their memory of what occurred, leading to a more durable memory. On the other hand, repeatedly recalling an event can lead children (and adults) to begin to reconstruct what happened, adding details that make sense but that may not be accurate. Which position reflects what actually happens over the course of repeated interviews is critical, not only for theoretical reasons, but for interpreting and evaluating children’s testimony in applied forensic situations.
