J. Zoe Klemfuss
Biography
J. Zoe Klemfuss, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine, where she also holds appointments in the Center for Psychology and Law, the Department of Language Science, the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, and the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy. Klemfuss received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University in 2011 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Irvine before joining the faculty at Florida International University in 2013 and returning to UC Irvine in 2016.
Klemfuss studies children's memory and disclosure of events, particularly in forensic contexts involving child maltreatment. Her research examines how factors such as parent-child conversations, interviewing techniques, stress, and children's language and cognitive abilities influence the accuracy and completeness of children's event reports. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles on topics including children's responses to attorney questioning in sexual abuse trials, the effects of parental reminiscing style on children's suggestibility, and children's comprehension of temporal sequencing questions. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, including a current R01 grant examining children's comprehension and memory of event sequences and its implications for maltreatment disclosure.
Klemfuss has mentored numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, several of whom have gone on to tenure-track faculty positions. She has served on editorial boards and as an ad-hoc reviewer for over 30 academic journals. Klemfuss received the Hellman Fellowship Award in 2020 and the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research in 2019. She serves as Social Media Chair for the Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Association for Criminal Justice Research—California.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, Cornell University, 2011
- M.A. in Developmental Psychology, Cornell University, 2008
- B.A. in Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 2004
Distinctions
- Hellman Fellowship Award, featured UCI fellow for the 2020-2021 cohort, 2020-2021
- Society for Research in Child Development Travel Award, 2013
- Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research, 2019
- Flora Rose Fellowship, 2010
- Martha Foulk Fellowship, 2010
- Ethel Fellowship, 2010
- Rebecca Quin Morgan Fellowship, 2009
- Olin Graduate Fellowship, 2005-2006
- Graduate Student Doctoral Fellowship, 2010
- Faculty Mentor of the Month, 2018
Areas of Expertise
- Developmental Psychology and Law
- Children's Eyewitness Memory
- Parent-Child Reminiscing Conversations
- Forensic Interviewing Techniques
- Adolescent COVID-19 Pandemic Adaptation
- Juror Decision-Making Processes
- Temporal Sequencing Comprehension
Recent Publications
- Fulton L.M., Peplak J., Klemfuss J.Z., “The Roles of Autonomic Arousal and Self-Reported Stress in Children's Disclosure of a Minor Transgression” (opens in new tab), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1558, 2026.
- Miller Q.C., Fessinger M.B., Klemfuss J.Z., “An Archival Analysis of 326 Child Sexual Abuse Cases From the National Registry of Exonerations” (opens in new tab), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1555, 2026.
- Miller Q.C., Peplak J., Fulton L.M., Klemfuss J.Z., “Experimentally testing effects of rapport and age on children’s transgression reports during a virtual interview” (opens in new tab), Applied Developmental Science, 2026.
- K. McWilliams, M. Cameron, B. Wylie, T. D. Lyon, J. Z. Klemfuss, “Adults' ability to detect the pseudotemporal problem when children give "I don't know" responses” (opens in new tab), Child Maltreatment, 2025.
- B. Wylie, D. Kamliot, T. D. Lyon, J. Z. Klemfuss, “Differences in young children's performance on sequencing questions when asked about descriptions versus their experience” (opens in new tab), Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 39, 2025.
- S. N. Doan, M. Ding, Q. Song, P. A. Smiley, J. Z. Klemfuss, “Maternal Capitalization support is associated with children's basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia” (opens in new tab), British Journal of Developmental Psychology, vol. 44, pp. 52-66, 2025.
- J. Peplak, R. L. Taffe, J. Z. Klemfuss, “Adolescents' Meaning-Making of Salient Emotional Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic” (opens in new tab), Journal of Adolescence, vol. 97, no. 3, pp. 634-649, 2025.
- J. Peplak, J. Z. Klemfuss, D. Zhu, D. Kamliot, T. Yates, “Parent–adolescent conversations about mental health and well-being shaped adolescents' anxiety/depression during the COVID-19 pandemic” (opens in new tab), Developmental Psychology, 2025.
- Slonecker E.M., Kamliot D.Z., Klemfuss J.Z., Wang Q., “Remember when? The retrieval of early childhood memories in black and white American young adults” (opens in new tab), Memory, vol. 33, pp. 631-643, 2025.
- B. E. Wylie, E. P. Merriwether, A. P. Olaguez, M. Lieber, J. Z. Klemfuss, T. D. Lyon, K. McWilliams, “Adults' Interpretation of Invitations Using the Word "Time"” (opens in new tab), Child Abuse Review, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. e2869, 2024.
- Q. Song, D. Z. Kamliot, E. M. Slonecker, E. D. Musser, J. Z. Klemfuss, “The interactive roles of narrative processing and emotion negativity/lability in relation to autonomic coordination” (opens in new tab), Psychophysiology, vol. 61, pp. e14559, 2024.
- Olaguez, A., Slonecker, E. M., Klemfuss, J. Z., Taffe, R., “Memory and suggestibility among children”, The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology and the Law, Oxford University Press, pp. 57-83, 2024.
- A. P. Olaguez, J. Peplak, G. M. Lundon, J. Z. Klemfuss, “The role of discrete emotional reactions to child sexual abuse (CSA) testimony in mock juror decision-making” (opens in new tab), Psychology Crime and Law, vol. 31, pp. 1–23, 2023.
- J. Peplak, J. Z. Klemfuss, T. M. Yates, “Promoting adolescents' social responsibility through parent-adolescent conversations about the COVID-19 pandemic” (opens in new tab), Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 830–837, 2023.
- J. Z. Klemfuss, J. Peplak, “The influence of parent conversation goal and structure on children's event reports” (opens in new tab), Cognitive Development, vol. 66, 2023.
- E. M. Slonecker, J. Z. Klemfuss, “Yes, no, maybe so: Caregiver autonomy support, conversation context, and children's memory performance” (opens in new tab), Developmental Psychology, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 285-296, 2023.
- Slonecker E.M., Olaguez A.P., Taffe R.L., Klemfuss J.Z., “Memory, suggestibility, and disclosure processes: Implications for children in legal settings”, Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology and the Law, pp. 57-83, 2023.
- J. Peplak, J. Z. Klemfuss, “Fact- and emotion-focused conversations elicit differential patterns of reporting and distress in children” (opens in new tab), Cognition and Emotion, vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 1420-1428, 2022.
- J. Peplak, J. Z. Klemfuss, P. Ditto, “Schadenfreude and sympathy following President Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and their effects on pre-election voting intentions” (opens in new tab), Journal of Social and Political Psychology, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 353-368, 2022.
- N. A. Bailey, A. P. Olaguez, J. Z. Klemfuss, E. F. Loftus, “Tactics for increasing resistance to varying amounts of misinformation” (opens in new tab), Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 35, pp. 863-872, 2021.
- S. Shaffer, N. Schreiber-Compo, J. Z. Klemfuss, J. Peplak, J. Mejias, “Law enforcement investigation of non-sexual child abuse: Physical abuse, neglect, and Abusive Head Trauma” (opens in new tab), The International Journal of Evidence and Proof, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 75–92, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- Ceci, S. J., Kulkofsky, S., Klemfuss, J. Z., Sweeney, C. D., Bruck, M., “Unwarranted assumptions about children's testimonial accuracy” (opens in new tab), Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, vol. 3, pp. 311-328, 2007.
- Klemfuss, J. Z., Quas, J. A., Lyon, T. D., “Attorneys' questions and children's productivity in child sexual abuse criminal trials” (opens in new tab), Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 28, pp. 780-788, 2014.
- Kulkofsky, S., Klemfuss, J. Z., “What the stories children tell can tell about their memories: Narrative skills as a predictor of suggestibility” (opens in new tab), Developmental Psychology, vol. 44, pp. 1442-1457, 2008.
- Klemfuss, J. Z., Olaguez, A. P., “Individual differences in children's suggestibility: An updated review” (opens in new tab), Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, vol. 24, pp. 1-25, 2020.
- Pena, M., Klemfuss, J. Z., Loftus, E. F., Mindthoff, A., “The effects of exposure to differing amounts of misinformation and source credibility perception on source monitoring and memory accuracy” (opens in new tab), Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, vol. 4, pp. 337-347, 2017.
- Klemfuss, J. Z., Ceci, S. J., “Legal and psychological perspectives on children's competence to testify in court” (opens in new tab), Developmental Review, vol. 32, pp. 268-286, 2012.
- E. F. Loftus, J. Z. Klemfuss, “Misinformation – Past, Present, and Future” (opens in new tab), Psychology, Crime, and Law, vol. 30, pp. 1-7, 2024.
- J. Peplak, J. Z. Klemfuss, T. M. Yates, “Parent-adolescent conversations about COVID-19 impact adolescents' empathic concern and adherence to health behaviors throughout the pandemic” (opens in new tab), Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 69, pp. 925-932, 2021.
- Klemfuss, J. Z., “Differential contributions of language skills to children's episodic recall” (opens in new tab), Journal of Cognition and Development, vol. 16, pp. 608-620, 2015.
- Klemfuss, J. Z., Milojevich, H. M., Yim, I. S., Rush, E., Quas, J. A., “Stress at encoding, context at retrieval, and children's narrative content” (opens in new tab), Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 116, pp. 693-706, 2013.
Contact Information
Website: https://childnarrativeslab.com/
Email: jklemfus@uci.edu
Address: 4548 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway
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Last updated on 6/25/2026.