Anxiety and Eye Witness Testimony Flashcards
What is this Johnson and Scott experiment 1976
This is about the ‘Effect of Weapons’
golly gosh i better grab my knives
Participants were asked to wait outside the lab and ‘over heard’ what they thought was a genuine exchange
Condition 1 = heard an amicable discussion about equipment failure and then man comes out with greasy hands holding a pen
NOT A PEN FSJFW0JG0WE
Condition 2 = heard a hostile exchange and the sound of breaking furniture and then a man came out holding a bloody knife and covered in blood
golly gosh this wouldve frightened me to piss my pants. i then wouldve proceeded to collect my urine to use as my weapon
expect the unexpected
What were the results of these Johnson and Scott study
Participants given 50 photos and asked to identify man who came out of lab
People who witnessed peaceful scene (U KNOW…WITHOUT THE MF KNIFE) had a better recall and were more ccurate in recognising those with hotstile condition (U KNOW…W THE MF KNIFE)
Pen = 49% accurate recall
Bloody knife = 33%
twas not mentioned b4 that the knife was bloody. i felt they shouldve mentioned this earlier
They believed anxiety caused by the weapon (blood stained knife) narrowed the focus of the participant and took some attention from the man’s face
What is the tunnel theory
put it in a hole
get in there real good
An explanation for the weapon-focus effect is that the weapon narrows the field of attention and thus reduced information to be stored
What is the Christianson and Hubinette 1993 study ya frog
Questioned 110 real victims of a bank robbery
werent gonna b fucking AI were they but alr
Found that those who had acc been threatened were more accurate in their recall, compared to those who were onlookers
This continued to be true 18 months later
This contradicts JOhnson and Scotts study
What can explain the contrasting findings of Christianson&Hubinette and Johnson&Scott’s study
Deffenbacher explains differences using the Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908)
Google a fuckin picture i aint drawing this w lines
States performance improves with increased arousal up to an optimal point (accuracy is poor when arousal is either too low/high but better when arousal is moderate)
personally i appreciate complete high arousal
Pls evaluate the Deffenbacher explanation of arousal in anxiety and memory
During lab experiment participants knew thhey were taking part in a study their arousal levels were not raised to optimal point
Moderate level of anxiety enables most reliable level of eye witness testimony
Each person’s moderate level will be different (individual differences)
What is the labyrinth of horror 2009
ur mum
well maybe idk
but in detail
Tim Valentine and Jan Mesout carried out a study in real life setting of the Horror Labyrinth at the London Dungeon
omg we live in london we’re FAMOUS
Designed to be frightening with many scares like darkness, gore, screams and sudden movements
Visitors to Labyrinth were offered a reduced entrance fee if they agreed to complete questionnaires at end of visit to assess self-reported anxiety level
Wore wireless heart rate monitors to confirm that they were experiencing anxiety
On basis of these 2 measures participants were divided into 2 groups: low and high anxiety
What were the results of the Labyrinth of Horror
Participant task was to describe person encountered in Labyrinth
Researchers found that high anxiety participants recalled fewest correct details of actor and made more mistakes
High anxiety = 17% correctly identified actor in line-up
Low anxiety = 75% correctly identified
What is a negative evaluation of Johnson and Scott’s
Weapon focus effect may not be relevant
May be testing surprise, not anxiety
Pickel 1998 (does he like gherkins) suggested low anxiety, low unusualness = scissors
Highly unusual conditions led to significantly poorer accuracy
dont ask what tf scissors got to do w it im so lost i copied it from the PP
r they lesbos?!
What is a negative evaluation of studies that test the weapon focus effect
Ethical issues obviously
Psychological harm
Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
What is a negative evaluation of the inverted-U explanation
whatever tf that is
It is too simplistic apparently
Is it cognitive, emotional or physical??? WHICH ONE IS IT
This explanation is only linked to physiological arousal
whereas i am linked to the kind of arousal w di-
How are demanding characteristics a negative evaluation of testing weapon focus effect
When done in labs they demand characteristics like anxiety
Most participants are shown a filmed or staged crime
Leads to them figuring out the nature of the study and what they may be questioned about
damnnnn they figured it out. i must now commit arson
