Gail S. Goodman is an American psychologist, known as one of the first in her field to study children's roles in the legal system, specifically children's eyewitness testimony pertaining to the Sixth Amendment. Her awards for her contributions to research, writing, and teaching include the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest in 2017. Her involvement includes being cited in United States Supreme Court cases, which is rare for psychologists. Early life Gail S. Goodman was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She completed her studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She majored in psychology, with minors in sociology and anthropology, and graduated in 1971. After receiving her master's degree in 1972, she continued her education towards getting her PhD. She majored in developmental psychology, minoring in perception and physiological psychology. Goodman received her PhD in 1977. Her dissertation focused on the development of schema memory and was published in the reputable Cognitive Psychology journal. Goodman then began to develop her interest in children and the law as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Denver; she began to enroll in classes concerning children's constitutional rights and the involvement of children in legal cases. Later Goodman conducted research at the in Paris for a year. When she returned from Paris she began to examine child eyewitness testimonies and the effects of these testimonies on jury members. Law-psychology career Research Early in her research career, Goodman experienced rejection by the psychological and law society who insisted that children testify too rarely for her research to be of interest. However, she began to gain recognition by the law-psychology community, beginning with her article in Psychology Today titled Would you believe a Child Witness? This article addressed the issues of child eyewitnesses and their accuracy. The article eventually even gained recognition by the American Bar Association. Goodman's research was soon being recognized and commended by experts in the law-psychology community and journals became prepared to publish her articles concerning children eyewitnesses. Goodman's later articles clarified common concerns that juries found with child witnesses. It was not considered uncommon for jury members to doubt the accuracy of child witnesses because the jury often assumed children are susceptible to suggestibility, and it is difficult for them to distinguish reality from imagination. These articles showed that children are more capable than formerly believed to recall details