Psychological science and the use of anatomically detailed dolls in child sexual-abuse assessments

Many devices are used in child assessment and treatment as communication aids, projective tools, and symbolic means of interaction. None are as hotly debated in their application among mental health professionals as dolls with genital details. Anatomically detailed (AD) dolls are often used in sexual-abuse evaluation and treatment with children, but such applications are controversial. This article is the product of a working group formed to review AD doll research and practice. This article reviews historical use of dolls in clinical inquiry and research on sexual behaviors in children, normative use of AD dolls in nonreferred children, differences in children's play behavior and emotional reactions to AD dolls, and memory and suggestibility issues relating to AD-doll use. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Implications of developmental research for interviewing children

This article first provides a brief review of recent research to update the investigative interviewer on children's development of cognition, memory and language. Next, we review results of studies which have focused on the development of children's specific knowledge about the legal system, and identify developmental and motivational factors which may influence children's willingness to report in legal settings. Next, clinical and research literature of young children's experience in pediatric settings offers ecologically compelling data for understanding children's reports of abusive touch, and strategies used for preparing children for medical procedures may be drawn on for preparation of children in sexual abuse cases. Finally, several issues are identified for future research.

Alternative splicing of micro-exons creates multiple forms of the insect cell adhesion molecule fasciclin I

Fasciclin I is a homophilic cell adhesion molecule in insects that is dynamically expressed on a subset of axon pathways in the embryonic nervous system, and on a variety of other cells and tissues during development. The fasciclin I protein consists of four homologous 150 amino acid domains. In this article, we describe the complete sequence of the Drosophila fasciclin I (fasI) gene. The gene consists of 15 exons and is distributed over 14 kilobases of DNA. We examine the structure and temporal expression pattern of multiple fasciclin I mRNAs that differ in the lengths of their 3' untranslated regions. We also show that a highly conserved sequence at the end of the second domain can be altered by the addition of three or six amino acids that are encoded by two alternatively spliced 9 base pair (bp) micro-exons. In grasshopper fasciclin I mRNAs, there are 9 bp and 6 bp insertions at the same position. The first of these insertions is identical in sequence to the first fly micro-exon. The grasshopper insertions are not found together in the same mRNA, so grasshopper fasciclin I species differ by the addition of three or two extra amino acids to the second domain. The alternatively spliced mRNAs are differentially expressed during embryogenesis, and all three of them are present in nerve cord preparations. We suggest that the amino acids inserted by alternative micro-exon splicing may alter the binding specificity of fasciclin I.

Developmental changes in event memory

Do developmental differences exist in children's organization of event memories? We explored this question by examining children's recall of standard features of a repeated event versus features that deviated from that event. 4- and 7-year-old children experienced an initially unfamiliar laboratory event (standard event) 1 or 3 times. Following the last visit, deviations from the standard event were introduced (deviation event). Children's recall was assessed 1 week later under free recall and contextual recall conditions. Younger children had more difficulty than older children distinguishing between the standard and deviation visits. That is, 4-year-olds were more confused regarding which event features occurred in the different event visits. 7-year-olds, in contrast, did a better job of correctly remembering the features of the standard and deviation visits. Implications for developmental changes in the organization of general and specific event memory are discussed.

Testifying in criminal court: emotional effects on child sexual assault victims

Child victims must cope not only with the emotional consequences of criminal acts but also with the potentially traumatizing effects of legal involvement. Dramatic increases in the reporting of child sexual abuse are bringing greater numbers of children into contact with the criminal justice system, raising fears that child victims of sex crimes will be further harmed by the courts. In the present study, the effects of criminal court testimony on child sexual assault victims were examined in a sample of 218 children. From this sample, the behavioral disturbance of a group of "testifiers" was compared to that of a matched control group of "nontestifiers" at three points following testimony: 3 months, 7 months, and after prosecution ended. At 7 months, testifiers evinced greater behavioral disturbance than nontestifiers, especially if the testifiers took the stand multiple times, were deprived of maternal support, and lacked corroboration of their claims. Once prosecution ended, adverse effects of testifying diminished. In courthouse interviews before and after testifying, the main fear expressed by children concerned having to face the defendant. Children who appeared more frightened of the defendant while testifying were less able to answer the prosecutors' questions; and later, after the cases were closed, they were more likely to say that testifying had affected them adversely. The two most pervasive predictors of children's experiences in the courtroom, however, were age and severity of abuse. Despite relevant laws, few innovative techniques were used to help the children testify. The results are discussed in relation to children's ability to cope with stressful situations, the interaction of the legal system with the child/family system, and debates about the need to protect child victims who testify in criminal court.

Children's memories of a physical examination involving genital touch: implications for reports of child sexual abuse

Evaluation of child sexual abuse often necessitates interviewing children about genital touch, yet little scientific research exists on how best to obtain children's reports of genital contact. To examine this issue, 72 five- and seven-year-old girls experienced a standardized medical checkup. For half of the children, the checkup included a vaginal and anal examination (genital condition); for the other half, the checkup included a scoliosis examination instead (nongenital condition). The children's memories were later solicited through free recall, anatomically detailed doll demonstration, and direct and misleading questions. The majority of children in the genital condition revealed vaginal and anal contact only when asked directly about it. Children in the nongenital condition never falsely reported genital touch in free recall or doll demonstration; when asked directly, the false report rate was low. Significant age differences in free recall and doll demonstration, found only in the nongenital condition, implicated socioemotional factors as suppressing the reports of older children who experienced genital contact.

Children's memories of a physical examination involving genital touch: Implications for reports of child sexual abuse

Evaluation of child sexual abuse often necessitates interviewing children about genital touch, yet little scientific research exists on how best to obtain children's reports of genital contact. To examine this issue, 72 five- and seven-year-old girls experienced a standardized medical checkup. For half of the children, the checkup included a vaginal and anal examination (genital condition); for the other half, the checkup included a scoliosis examination instead (nongenital condition). The children's memories were later solicited through free recall, anatomically detailed doll demonstration, and direct and misleading questions. The majority of children in the genital condition revealed vaginal and anal contact only when asked directly about it. Children in the nongenital condition never falsely reported genital touch in free recall or doll demonstration; when asked directly, the false report rate was low. Significant age differences in free recall and doll demonstration, found only in the nongenital condition, implicated socioemotional factors as suppressing the reports of older children who experienced genital contact.

Children's use of anatomically detailed dolls to recount an event

The use of anatomically detailed dolls in child sexual abuse investigations has raised several controversial issues related to important theoretical questions in developmental psychology. The present study was designed to examine some of these issues in a methodologically sound experiment. 80 3- and 5-year-old children experienced a social interaction with a male confederate and were later tested under 1 of 4 recall conditions: reenactment with anatomically detailed dolls, reenactment with regular dolls, free recall with visual cues, or free recall without visual cues. The children were also asked a variety of specific and misleading questions, some of them dealing with acts associated with abuse ("He took your clothes off, didn't he?"). Both anatomically detailed and regular dolls along with other props aided 5-year-olds more than 3-year-olds in recounting the event. To use increased rather than decreased age differences. Anatomically detailed dolls did not foster false reports of abuse. Overall, 3-year-olds were more suggestible than 5-year-olds. The findings have implications for children's testimony in child abuse cases and for psychological theories concerning the effects of stimulus support on children's memory.

Visiting the wizard: children's memory for a recurring event

The development of children's scripts for a recurring event was examined. 24 girls--2.5, 4, and 5.5 years of age--repeatedly experienced an initially novel episode (a trip to the "wizard's room") in a laboratory setting. Based on parents' ratings, the episode was defined as consisting of 26 actions organized into 7 activities. The sequential, spatial, and causal relations among the activities remained constant across episodes. Each child's knowledge of the recurring event was assessed by 4 probe conditions: free recall, prop reenactment, in-context reenactment, and in-context deviations. Results support conclusions that during early stages of script formation: (a) more actions and activities are included with age in children's scripts, (b) causally related activities are sequenced at all ages but temporal ordering is age-related, (c) hierarchical organization of actions within activities emerges gradually over the preschool years, and (d) probe conditions strongly influence performance for the younger but not for the older children.

Expectation and anticipation of dynamic visual events by 3.5-month-old babies

We report an investigation of the development of visual expectancies in 3.5-month-old infants. One of the infant's eyes was videorecorded as the infant watched a series of slides that were presented noncontingent on behavior. Babies were presented an alternating and an irregular series of 30 slides with a 700-msec onset duration separated by an interstimulus interval (ISI). The ISI for the alternating series was 1,100 msec, whereas the slides for the irregular series were separated by 900, 1,100, or 1,300 msec, randomly ordered. One-half of the babies saw the irregular series first, and one-half saw the regular series first. Babies in both groups provided evidence that they developed expectations for the visual events in the alternating series. Their reaction times (RTs) declined significantly from 3-5 "baseline" presentations, and their RTs were reliably faster during the alternating than the irregular series. Additionally, babies in the alternating-late group had significantly more stimulus anticipations during the alternating than during the irregular series. These findings indicate that 3.5-month-olds can detect regularity in a spatiotemporal series, will develop expectancies for events in the series, and will act on the basis of those expectancies even when those actions have no effect on the stimulus events. We believe that infants are motivated to develop expectations for noncontrollable spatiotemporal events, because these expectations permit them to bring their visual behavior under partial internal control.

Memory development and neurophysiology: accomplishments and limitations

The review of Teyler and Fountain offers developmental psychologists an update on the status of neurophysiological theorizing and findings related to memory and learning. Recent findings of LTP and of localization of different types of memory in different brain areas have potential for enriching our understanding of memory development. However, we note several limitations in Teyler and Fountain's presentation in that they do not: distinguish between learning and memory, nor between storage and retrieval; address the role of knowledge-based or top-down influences in memory and learning; employ concepts that can accommodate such developmental phenomena as stages in the hierarchical reorganization of memory. We conclude that even when the age-old search for the "engram" is accomplished, these issues will remain, and that different levels of neural modeling will be required to accommodate them. It is important for developmental psychologists and neuroscientists to maintain communication for the purpose of mutual refinement of models as their knowledge bases continue to grow.