Children's testimony and their perceptions of stress in and out of the courtroom.

Modifications of the courtroom environment have been proposed to reduce stress and enhance truth-telling of child witnesses. The present study examines the premise that courtroom environment affects the quality of children's evidence and children's perceptions of their own stress. Thirty-four 8- to 10-year-olds participated in an activity and 2 weeks later, their memory for the activity was tested. Half the children were questioned in a mock courtroom in the law school of a major university, and half at their school, both by the same interviewer. Children questioned at court showed impaired memory performance when compared with agemates questioned at school. They also rated certain court-related experiences as more stressful than peers interviewed at school. Furthermore, children's perceptions of courtroom stress were negatively correlated with completeness of accurate free recall, suggesting a relation between court-related stress and eyewitness memory worthy of further study.