Eye-witness testimony Anxiety

Question 1

What the procedure of Johnson and Scott’s study 1976, Anxiety has a negative effect

Answer 1

-ppts sat in a waiting room believing they were going to take part in a lab study
-each ppts heard an argument in the next room
low anxiety condition: a man then walked through the waiting room carrying a pen with grease on his hands
high anxiety condition: the heated argument was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man then walked through the room holding a paper knife covered in blood

ppts were later asked to pick the man from a set of 50 photos

Question 2

What the findings and conclusions of Johnson and Scott’s study 1976, Anxiety has a negative effect

Answer 2

49% of ppts in low anxiety condition = identify him
33% of high = identify him
the tunnel theory of memory argues that a witness’s attention is on the weapon (wf) because it is a source of danger and anxiety

Question 3

Outline the procedure of Yuille and Cutshall 1986 of anxiety having a positive effect

Answer 3

in a real life crime a gun-shop owner shot a thief dead. there were 21 witnesses - 13 agreed to take part
ppts were interviewed 4-5 months aft the incident ,, accounts were compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting
witnesses rated how stressed they felt at the time of the incident

Question 4

Outline the findings and conclusions of Yuille and Cutshall 1986 of anxiety having a positive effect

Answer 4

witnesses were very accurate and there was little change after 5 months. Some details were less accurate eg colours of items , age /weight/ height
ppts who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (88% compacted to 75% of less stressed)

Question 5

How does the inverted U theory explain the contradictory findings

Answer 5

• Yerkes and Dodson (1908) argued that the relationship between performance and arousal / stress is curvilinear rather than linear

performance will increase with stress but only to a certain point where it decreases drastically

Question 6

How does anxiety affecting memory explain the contradictory findings

Answer 6

deffenbacher found that lower levels of anxiety did produce lower levels of recall accuracy. Recall accuracy increases with anxiety up to an optimal point. A drastic decline in accuracy is seen when an eyewitness experiences more anxiety than optimal point

Question 7

Name 4 limitations

Answer 7

• field studies lack control of variables (extraneous variables)
• Johnson’s and Scott’s study may test surprise not anxiety
• ethical issues in this research area
• the inverted U explanation is limited because it is too simplistic (ignored elements to anxiety eg pies)