Anxiety on EWT Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A state of emotional and physical arousal. Psychological arousal included increase heart rate and rapid breathing.
What is the weapon focus effect?
The view that a weapon in a criminals hand distracts attention (because of the anxiety it creates) from other features- recusing accuracy of EWT
What is a study that shows the negative effect of anxiety on EWT?
Johnson and Scott (1976)- Two groups were in a coridoor and both hear an argument coming from a room. One group sees a man coke out of the room holding a pen with grease on his hands. The other group see the man come out with a knife and blood on his hands. The low anxiety group (the pen) had 49% accuracy in identifying the man and the high anxiety group (the knife) has 33% accuracy in identifying the man
What are two studies which showed the positive effects of anxiety on EWT?
Yuille and Cutshall (1986)- a study of a real life shooting in Canada where the shop owner shot a thief dead. They interviewed the witnesses 4-5 months after the incident and compared it to their original statements. The witnesses rated there stress levels. The witnesses with high anxiety levels were 88% accurate and lower anxiety levels were 75% accurate.
Christianson and Hubinette (1993)- 58 witnesses in a back robbery in Sweden were put into groups. Bank teller= high anxiety and employee or customer= low anxiety. The interviews were conducted 4-15 months after the robbery. The high anxiety group had better recall than the low anxiety group.
What is Yerkes-Dodson law?
When anxiety is too high or too low which causes eyewitness accuracy to reduce. If anxiety is moderate then eyewitness accuracy is enhanced
What is the strength of anxiety on misleading information?
Support from real- life studies- There has been evidence of the effects so it has high ecological validity. For example, Christianson and Hubinette (1993) and Yuille and Cutshall (1986) both carried out studies in the context of a real crime creating the real levels of anxiety experienced.
Counter- these studies have lower internal validity. In field studies researchers interview witnesses a few months after the event. A number of things could have happened to the witness in this time (accounts they read, talking to other witnesses) which could affect there accuracy which the researcher has no control over. These extraneous variables may be responsible for the accuracy of their recall.
What are the 3 limitations of anxiety on eyewitness testimony?
Weapon focus may not be caused by anxiety- Weapon focus may not be as relevant as Johnson and Scott suggested. They may focus on the weapon due to surprise rather than due to being scared. For example, Pickel (1998) had ptpts watch a thief enter a hairdresser salon carrying scissors (high threat, low surprise), a handgun (high threat, high surprise), a while raw chicken (low threat, high surprise) and a wallet (low threat, low surprise) they found the identification of the thief was less accurate in the high surprise conditions rather than high threat.
Demand characteristics in lab studies- Most lab studies show ptpts a filmed usually staged crime so they may be aware they are watching a filmed crime for a study. There is a high chance they will work out what they are going to be asked questions about while watching.
Problem with Yerkes-Dodson law- It ignores the fact that anxiety has many elements (cognitive, behavioural. Emotional and physical). It just focuses on physical arousal and assumes it is the only one linked to EWT but the way we think about stressful situations (cognitive) may also be important.
