Eye witness testimony - anxiety

Question 1

Anxiety

Answer 1

An unpleasant emotional state where we fear that something bad is about to happen.
People become anxious in stressful situations.
Often accompanied by physiological arousal e.g., increased heart rate.

Question 2

Weapon focus effect

Answer 2

• where violent crimes mean that people may focus more on the weapon being used than on the central details of the event.
• reduces the accuracy of EWT

Question 3

Anxiety - Yerkes Dodson law

Answer 3

There’s an optimum point of anxiety.
Low anxiety means low attention level
High anxiety means low attention level

Question 4

Anxiety in EWT evaluation - Loftus and Burns 1982

Answer 4

WEAKNESS
- shown a violent video where a boy is shot in the face
- ppts had a distorted recall from events that occured before the incident

Question 5

Anxiety in EWT evaluation - Christian and Hubinette 1993

Answer 5

STRENGTH
- questioned 58 real victims of a bank robbery
- those who had been threatened had a better recall
- this was true 15 months later aswell

Question 6

Anxiety in EWT evaluation - Johnson and Scott 1976

Answer 6

WEAKNESS
- study where people heard an argument
- condition 1 = man walked out with a pen in his hand with a greasy hand
- condition 2 = man walked out with a paper knife covered in blood
- more ppts could identify the man when he was holding the pen
- people paid more attention the the weapon in condition 2 than the person holding it