The ability of children to recall traumatic events has been the focus of the second day of the deceased convicted sex offender Peter Ellis' appeal in the Supreme Court.
Ellis, who died two years ago, was convicted in 1993 of abusing children while he was a childcare worker at the Christchurch Civic Creche. He served seven years of a 10-year sentence and always maintained his innocence.
One of the key arguments of Ellis' appeal is that the evidence gathered from the children was done in a way that contaminated it and led to a wrongful conviction.
The case is re-examining the reliability of the evidence in light of what is now understood about memory and child interview techniques nearly 30 years after the first trial.
A range of psychology and memory experts from New Zealand and overseas continued to give evidence on Tuesday.
There was general agreement from the panel that highly distinctive events may be remembered better than mundane events but that's not always the case, and when it comes to sexual abuse children tend to be reluctant to disclose information. They also agreed that if children haven't been exposed to additional false information and if appropriate interview techniques are used, they may be able to recall an event with a high degree of accuracy.
Professor Mark Howe from Ontario, Canada noted that acute stress can impair memory, and he cited a case where a child with a gash to the head didn’t remember getting local anaesthetic or stitches because they were so stressed. But he said the effects of stress are not straightforward, and it can't simply be said that more traumatic events are memorable. Rather it's the more "distinctive" moments or events that are personally relevant that seem to be remembered for longer, said Professor Howe.
Psychology Professor Gail Goodman from the University of California said when it comes to sexual abuse it's more common for children to leave out important information than add false details. But she noted there’s a risk of false reporting of sex abuse when nothing traumatic had happened, because of past exposure to sexual content or false suggestions.
"In testing thousands of children across various types of events, I would estimate less than 1 per cent of the children have made made such false claims," said Professor Goodman. "True memories are more enduring than false memories.”
Dr Fred Seymour explained there is a distinction between children reporting traumatic events and remembering them.
"Children may have difficulty reporting particularly traumatic events as compared with remembering them," he said.
Dr Suzanne Blackwell said there was no magical ability to know if someone was telling the truth and detecting deception was a bit like "flipping a coin". "We get it right about 50 per cent of the time," she said.
The hearing is set down for two weeks.
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