Human Development

Law, Psychology, and Human Development at Cornell

LPHD webpage

Legal Eagles - article on the LPHD program featured in CHE Magazine, Fall 2008

 The Death Penalty in Delaware

John Blume discusses what has been learned from empirical studies of Delaware’s death penalty and how these insights might apply to other regions. [Video & slides]

How Does Negative Emotion Cause False Memories 

Charles Brainerd discusses research on how emotional content distorts memory and why this is important to the legal system.[Video & slides]

Law, Psychology, and Human Development

Charles Brainerd highlights the pervasive use of memory reports as legal evidence in our courts, common assumptions juries make about eye-witness reports, and research findings showing many of these assumptions to be false or seriously limited. [Video, slides & article]

The Science of False Memory 

Charles Brainerd discusses the psychology of false memories and evidence that calls into question traditional theory regarding memory in this book talk at the Mann Library.  [Video] [Audio]

What Parents and Professionals Need to Know about Children's Testimony

Children are increasingly called upon to testify in courts, most commonly in cases of maltreatment or divorce and child custody. Research by Valerie Reyna and Charles Brainerd provides insights that can help parents, guardians, law professionals and others to assess the validity of children’s testimony and protect children’s memories during questioning. [HD Outreach & Extension article]

Guidelines on Memory and the Law

These guidelines provide an accessible and scientifically accurate framework for considering legal issues relating to memory. The report represents the culmination of an international working group set up by the Research Board of the British Psychological Society to study the latest evidence on human memory and how that evidence could be of use to the legal professions. Advisors to the working group included Charles Brainerd and Valerie Reyna. [Guidelines]

Memory on Trial

A synopsis of the research of Reyna and Brainerd's research on how memory works funded by the National Science Foundation. Their research suggests children's memories may be more reliable than adults' in court cases. [Article]

Remember That Thing That Never Happened?

Wray Herbert writes an engaging article on research by Brainerd, Reyna, and Ceci that is challenging the idea that memory becomes more accurate with age. Newsweek Web Exclusive, July 17, 2007. [Article]