Eye witness testimony Flashcards
outline the effects of anxiety on eyewitness testimony
Sometimes anxiety can improve memory, but it can also sometimes make it less accurate and detailed. This is because of fight or flight, where increased heart rate would probably reduce memory but dilated pupils may make it better
Describe the procedure and findings of Johnson and Scott’s study
Participants were in a waiting room, believing they were going to take place in a lab study.
Group 1 overheard a heated argument, then a man left holding a pen with grease
Group 2 overheard an argument and a man exited with a knife and blood in his hands
The participants then had to pick the man from 50 photos
In the low anxiety situation, 49% identified the man
In the high anxiety situation, 33% identified the man
What does Johnson and Scott’s study show about the effects of anxiety on EWT?
Anxiety has a negative effect on recall
How does Pickel’s study challenge Johnson and Scott’s findings?
They repeated the study using different objects:
-Wallet (low anxiety, normal)
-Raw chicken (low anxiety, unusual)
-Gun (high anxiety, unusual)
-Scissors (high anxiety, normal)
Participants watched a video of an incident in a hairdressers with each of these items and had to recall the man’s face
Recall was worst for gun and chicken, suggesting that is how unusual the objects are rather than the anxiety they evoke
What did Yuille and Cutshall find about the effects of anxiety in their study?
They asked real life witnesses of a gun shop robbery where the robber was killed their anxiety at the time on a 7 point scale
They found that even 5 months later, they were able to recall the incident in detail, they didn’t alter in response to leading questions. Those who reported the highest level of stress were more accurate than those who were less stressed
Describe the Yerkes-Dodson law
Arousal increases performance up to a certain level, and the after a certain point, increased arousal decreases performance
What is tunnel theory?
Anxiety happens because a weapon is present, so the attention of the participant gets focused on the weapon
How can the fight or flight response be used to explain the findings of research into EWT?
All effects of fight or flight could improve memory as they could improve alertness, but they could also decrease memory as they could get too stressed and forget what happened
