eye witness testimony - anxiety Flashcards
anxiety has a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)
anxiety causes physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues so recall is worse
one approach to studying anxiety and eyewitness testimony is to look at the effect of the presence of a weapon which creates anxiety
leads to a focus on the weapon reducing a witnesses recall for other details of the event
anxiety having a negative effect on recall (weapon focus) procedure
Johnson and Scott
participants believed that they were taking part in a lab study
while seared in the waiting room participants in the low anxiety condition heard a casual conversation in the next room
then saw a man walk out carrying a pen with grease on his hands
other participants in the higher anxiety condition overheard a heated argument accompanied by the sound of breaking glass
man walked out of the room holding a knife covered in blood
anxiety has a negative effect on recall (weapon focus) - findings
participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos
49% who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him
33% for the knife
tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for centeral events
weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect
anxiety has a positive effect on recall
witnessing a stressful event creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body
fight or flight response is triggered increasing alertness
may improve memory for the event as we become aware of cues in the situation
anxiety has a positive effect on recall - procedure
Yuille and Cutshall
study of an actual shooting in a gun shop
13 took part in the study
interviewed after 5 months
interviews were compared with the original police interviews
accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account
witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt in the time of incident
and whether they had any emotional,problems since the events
anxiety has a positive effect on recall - findings
witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled or accuracy after 5 months
though some details were less accurate such as recollection of items
participants who reported the highest levels of stress had the most accurate recall
suggests that anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in a real world context and may even enhance it
anxiety has a positive effect on the recall - explaining the contradictory findings
according to yerkes and dodson the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U
DeffenBacher reviewed 21 studies of ewt and noted contradictory findings on the effects of anxiety
used Yerkes dodson law
when we witness a crime we become emotionally and physiologically aroused
lower levels of anxiety / arousal produce lower levels of recall accuracy and recall increase when anxiety increases
there is an optimal level of anxiety so recall suffers
limitation is effects of anxiety
unusualness not anxiety
Johnson and Scott - is that it may not have tested anxiety
reasons participants focused on the weapon may be because they were surprised at what they saw rather than scared
Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors a handgun a wallet raw chicken as handheld item in a hairdressing salon video
eyewitness accuracy was significantly poor in the high unusualness conditions
suggest that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety
therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on ewt
give a strength
support for negative effects
evidence supporting the view that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of recall
Valentine and Mescout - supports the research on weapon focus
finding negative effects on recall
researchers used an objective measure (heart rate) to divide participants into high and low anxiety
anxiety clearly disrupted participants ability to recall
suggests that a high level of anxiety does have a negative effect on the immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event
give a strenght
support for positive effects
evidence showing that anxiety can have positive effects on the accuracy of recall
Christiansen and Hubinette
interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies
some were directly involved
some were indirectly involved
researchers assumed that those directly involved would experience the most anxiety
recall was more than 75 % accurate across all witnesses
direct victims were even more accurate
findings from actual crimes confirmed that anxiety does not reduce the accuracy for recall for eyewtinesses and may even enhance it
