ABSTRACT
At the most fundamental level, children cannot report events they do not remember. In this chapter, we review the extensive literature on the development of children's memory and explore its implications for interpreting and optimizing children's testimony. Our review is based on an understanding of the processes that underlie remembering, processes that continue long after an event has been experienced through an on-going, dynamic system of interactions between an individual and continuing experience. As such, we emphasize the circumstances under which children's event memory may change over time, particularly within the context of legal proceedings. As we see it, children's testimony about an experience is influenced by their understanding and reactions to the event at encoding, and their exposure to both reinstating and contradictory events during the retention interval, as well as the conditions under which the event was subsequently disclosed and reported. Moreover, each of these factors interacts with developmental changes in the memory system and with individual differences in cognition and emotion. We use this perspective on memory and testimony to understand the ways in which forensic practices (e.g., suggestive and repeated interviews) may impact remembering in the legal context. We conclude with recommendations for professionals involved in obtaining children's accounts of their experiences and managing the involvement of very young witnesses in the legal system.
