Dr. Thierry’s research examines ways to enhance the accuracy of preschoolers’ memory for personally experienced events, such as allegations of sexual abuse. Our memories of events can be acquired from a variety of sources; for example, some events are experienced in real life whereas other events are merely imagined. Young children are less likely than older children to correctly “monitor” the sources of their memories and may claim that an imagined event occurred in real life. Dr. Thierry is examining how training children to monitor source enhances the accuracy and completeness of their reports of witnessed events provided during investigative interviews.

Memberships
Society for Research in Child Development
Cognitive Development Society
American Psychology-Law Society

Editorial Activities
Ad hoc Reviewer for: Child Development, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,
Child Abuse and Neglect

PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS

Refereed Journals

Thierry, K. L., Lamb, M. E., Orbach, Y. & Pipe, M.-E. (2005).  Developmental differences in the function and use of anatomical dolls during interviews with alleged sexual abuse victims.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 1125-1134.

Thierry, K. L., Goh, C.,  Pipe, M.-E., & Murray, J. (2005). Source recall enhances childrens discrimination of seen and heard events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 11, 33-44.

Thierry, K. L., & Spence, M. J. (2004).  A real-life event enhances the accuracy of preschoolers' recall. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 297-309.

Thierry, K. L., Lamb, M. E., & Orbach, Y. (2003).  Awareness of the origin of knowledge predicts child witnesses' recall of alleged sexual and physical abuse.  Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 953-967.

Thierry, K. L., & Spence, M. J. (2002). Source-monitoring training facilitates preschoolers'
eyewitness memory performance. Developmental Psychology, 38, 428-437.

Thierry, K. L., Spence, M. J., & Memon, A. (2001). Before misinformation is encountered: Source monitoring decreases child witness suggestibility. Journal of Cognition and Development, 2, 1-26.

Book Chapters

Pipe, M.-E., Thierry, K. L., & Lamb, M. E. (in press).  The development of event memory: Implications for child witness testimony.  In M. Toglia, S. Lindsay, D. Ross, & D. Reed (Eds.), Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology.  Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Thierry, K. L., Spence, M. J., & Memon, A. (2000). A comparison between fuzzy-trace theory and the source-monitoring framework: Evidence from a child witness suggestibility study. In K. P. Roberts and M. Blades (Eds.), Children’s Source Monitoring. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Lamb, M. E., & Thierry, K. L. Understanding children’s reports of alleged sexual and physical abuse:
Contributions from laboratory analog and field research. Chapter to appear in D. M. Teti (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in developmental psychology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Conference presentations

Rieger, S., Smith, T., Mangano, J., Thierry, K. L., & Sumaroka, M. (2006, March). Source-monitoring practice enhances childrens discrimination of seen and heard events. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American-Psychology Law Society, St. Petersburg, FL.

Thierry, K. L., Goh, C. L., Pipe, M.-E., Murray, J. (2005, April). Source rehearsal enhances children's discrimination of seen and heard events.  In K. P. Roberts & K. L. Thierry (Chairs), Developmental differences in the effectiveness of source-monitoring training procedures. Paper symposium conducted at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, GA.

Thierry, K. L., Lamb, M. E., Orbach, Y., & Pipe, M.-E. (2005, March). Developmental differences in the use of anatomical dolls during interviews with alleged sexual abuse victims.In M.-E. Pipe (Chair), Cuing recall in forensic interviews with children: What works, what doesnt?  Paper symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, San Diego, CA.

Thierry, K. L. (2004, May).  Preschoolers can discriminate real-life and video events.  Poster presented at the American Psychological Society, Chicago, IL.

Thierry, K. L., Lamb, M. E., Orbach, Y., & Pipe, M.-E. (2004, March).  Developmental differences in the function of anatomical dolls during interviews with alleged sexual abuse victims. Poster presented at the American Psychology-Law Society, Phoenix, AZ.

Thierry, K. L. (2003). The utility of anatomical dolls during interviews with alleged sexual abuse victims. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL.

Thierry, K. L., & Spence, M. J. (2003). A real-life event enhances preschoolers’ recall accuracy. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL.

Thierry, K. L., Lamb, M. E., & Orbach, Y. (2002). Source monitoring predicts child witnesses’ recall of alleged sexual and physical abuse. Poster presented at the meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, Austin, TX.

Thierry, K. L., & Spence, M. J. (2002). Children’s memory and suggestibility for a real-life and video event. Poster presented at the meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, Austin, TX.

Thierry, K. L., & Spence, M. J. (2001). Source-monitoring training facilitates preschoolers' memory performance. In L. Baker-Ward & T. Lyon (Chairs), Effectively interviewing young children: Scaffolding individual differences and developmental limitations. Poster symposium conducted at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.

Thierry, K. L., Spence, M. J., & Memon, A. (1999). Source monitoring decreases child witness suggestibility. Poster presented at the meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Chapel Hill, NC.

Thierry, K. L., Spence, M. J., & Memon, A. (1999). Before misinformation is encountered: Source monitoring decreases child witness suggestibility. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM.

Thierry, K. L., Spence, M. J., & Memon, A. (1998). Effect of repeated source monitoring on children’s eyewitness suggestibility. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, Redondo Beach, CA.

Cardenas, A., Thierry, K. L., & Spence, M. J. (1997). Stimulus structure and action atypicality affect 14-month-olds’ deferred imitation. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, DC.

Scholarships
William T. Rissi, University of Notre Dame, 1994 -1995
Holy Cross Award, University of Notre Dame, 1993 -1994
Chemical Bank, University of Notre Dame, 1992-1994
William A. Dotterweich Memorial, University of Notre Dame, 1991-1995
Merrill Lynch, University of Notre Dame, 1991-1993
Balfour Foundation, University of Notre Dame, 1991-1993

Fellowships/Grants