This study investigated the accuracy of depressed youths' appraisals of naturally occurring life events. Participants (49% girls; M age = 12.44 years) with clinical diagnoses of depression (n = 24), subsyndromal symptoms of depression (n = 29), and no symptoms of psychopathology (n = 36) completed semi-structured interviews of life stress. As predicted, depressed youth experienced more independent and self-generated interpersonal stress than did nonsymptomatic youth. Consistent with a cognitive bias, clinically depressed youth overestimated the stressfulness of events and overestimated their contribution to events relative to nonsymptomatic youth. Youth with subsyndromal symptoms demonstrated similar, although typically less severe, impairment than those with clinical depression. Results contribute to cognitive-interpersonal models of depression by illustrating the need to consider both realistic interpersonal difficulties and biased appraisals of experiences.

Preschool children (ages 48-70 months, N = 48) experienced 2 to-be-remembered events (i.e., the games Twister ® and Shapes) that included either innocuous bodily touch or no touch. Participants were interviewed 7 days later and asked direct ("Did Amy kiss you?") or suggestive "tag" questions ("Amy kissed you, didn't she?") equated for content. Results indicated that children who were innocuously touched were no more likely to falsely assent to "abuse-related" touch questions (e.g., "Amy touched your bottom, didn't she?") than were children who were not touched. However, children who were asked tag questions responded at chance levels, thereby making high errors of commission in response to abuse-touch questions relative to their no-tag counterparts who responded to "abuse questions" accurately 93% of the time. Children who were asked tag questions assented at a higher rate to general forensic questions ("Amy took your picture, didn't she?") than did children asked direct questions, and children assented at higher rates to "abuse-touch" questions than to general forensic questions. Results are discussed in terms of prior research on interviewing techniques and adult influence on children's testimony.

No abstract

This study tested the efficacy of Event Report Training (ERT), a training procedure designed to improve children's memory reports and decrease suggestibility. Children (N ¼ 58) participated in two forensically relevant play events. Two weeks later, children received ERT or participated in control procedures, after which they received a memory interview. Results indicated that ERT decreased suggestibility to abuse-related questions in preschoolers; their responses were highly accurate and age differences were eliminated. ERT did not increase the amount of information preschoolers provided in response to open-ended questions. However, with ERT 7-to 8-year-olds reported 32% more information which included a 32% increase in actions, without an accompanying increase in incorrect information. Due to school-aged children's high accuracy rates, it was impossible to gauge the effectiveness of ERT in reducing suggestibility. The failure to obtain an effect of ERT in preschoolers' open-ended recall is discussed in terms of their cognitive-developmental limitations.

This study examined the effects of memory enhancement procedures (i.e., hypnosis, n = 19; context reinstatement/reverse order recall(CR/RO), n = 19; task motivation instructions (TMIs), n = 20) on the fate of flashbulb memories of Princess Diana's death. Three days after Diana's death, participants provided a narrative account and responded to specific questions describing the circumstances under which they learned the news. Eleven to 12 weeks later, participants, selected (from a larger sample, N = 348) on the basis of their initial report of an emotional reaction to Diana's death and report completeness, received one of the three memory enhancement procedures and then completed the original survey. Hypnotized participants' recall was compromised relative to task motivated participant's on measures of consistency in which task motivated participants provided the most consistent recall. CR/RO and TMI participants provided more complete narratives than did hypnosis participants. Prototypical flashbulb memory features were stable (82%) across narratives. However, when the entire narrative was analyzed, statement by statement, consistency declined to 32%.