Updated Sept. 28

With recent developments in the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, University of California offers expert sources in psychology who have studied children’s and adults’ memory of childhood traumas. A study co-author is also available to comment. Also below are video interviews with law faculty.

Psychologists

Gail S. Goodman, distinguished professor of psychological science, UC Davis, is a developmental psychologist who studies children’s, adolescents’ and adults’ memory for, and recounting of, childhood traumas, including sexual assault and other forms of violence exposure. She has written extensively on these topics, and is widely credited with starting the modern scientific study of children’s eyewitness memory and child victims as witnesses in legal contexts.

She and her collaborators on past publications and a pending academic paper constitute one of the only teams of scholars in the country with scientific data documenting how well adults can remember child sexual assaults, and how their reports are shaped by characteristics in the adults and their environment, initially and over time. (Collaborators include Jodi Quas, professor of psychological science, UC Irvine, and Deborah Goldfarb, assistant professor of psychology at Florida International University and a recent doctoral psychology student at UC Davis.)

Goodman’s expertise spans the topics of eyewitness capabilities of children and adolescents, adults' long-term memory for abuse, emotional effects of legal involvement, and the effects of different questioning strategies on reporting accuracy and completeness. Contact: ggoodman@ucdavis.edu.

(Note: Goodman is out of the country through Oct. 4 and reporters may experience delays in hearing back from her)

Jodi Quas, professor of psychological science, UC Irvine, is a developmental psychologist who studies children’s, adolescents’ and adults’ memory for and recounting of childhood traumas, including sexual assault and other forms of violence exposure. She is a collaborator on a recent study with Gail S. Goodman.

Her expertise spans the topics of eyewitness capabilities of children and adolescents, long-term memory for abuse, and the effects of different questioning strategies on reporting accuracy and completeness. Contact: 949-648-9128 (cell); 949-824-7693 (office), jquas@uci.edu.

UC Davis School of Law professors weigh in on the Supreme Court confirmation process

Law Dean Kevin Johnson addresses the delay on Friday, Sept. 28