EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY- ANXIETY. Flashcards
What is anxiety-
a state of emotional and physical arousal.
What causes anxiety
Stressful situations such as witnessing a crime.
- there is evidence to support that anxiety can both help AND hinder the accuracy of eyewitnesses.
What is the weapon focus effect?
- in violent crimes, arousal may focus the witness on more CENTRAL details of the attack (eg a weapon) than the more peripheral details. (Eg, what was ACTUALLY happening, what the perpetrator looked like).
Who investigated the effect of weapons on accuracy of recall of witnesses?
JOHNSON AND SCOTT (1976)
What was the procedure of johnson and scitt?
Participants were told they are gonna take part in a lab study.
- while in a waiting room they heard a heated argument in the next room, followed by a man walking through the waiting room.
There were two conditions:
- LOW ANXIETY condition= man holding a PEN with grease on his hands.
- HIGH ANXIETY condition = man holding a KNIFE covered in blood.
What were the findings of Johnson and scott?
Low anxiety condition= accuracy of recall was 49%.
High anxiety condition = accuracy of recall was 33%.
What do the findings of johnson scott show about the EFFECTS of anxiety on EWT?
- Anxiety CAN REDUCE the reliability of EWT.
- researchers claim that participants who saw the knife were LESS ACCURATE because they surrounded their ATTENTION on the weapon rather than the surrounding events.
Whats an opposing theory on the effects of anxiety on EWT?
Other studies suggest anxiety INCREASES the accuracy of EWT as it TRIGGERS THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT response, increasing our alertness.
Who studied the ‘positive effect’ of anxiety on EWT?
YUILLE AND CUTSHALL (1986)
What was the PROCEDURE of yuille and cutshall?
-13 witnesses of a REAL life shooting in canada were interviewed 4-5 months after the shooting.
- the accuracy of their testimony was COMPARED to the ORIGINAL police interviews made at the time of the shooting.
What were the findings of YUILLE AND CUTSHALL?
Witnesses proved to be very accurate in their accounts.
- participants who reported HIGHEST LEVELS of stress had the MOST ACCURATE recall : 88% compared to 75% for the less stressed group.
What is a weakness of research into effect of anxiety on EWT?
P- they are LAB experiments.
E- in REAL life settings (field experiments) research has HIGH VALIDITY as findings can be GENERALISED to other similar situations.
- it is therefore more likely to be relevant, eg to EWT in COURT cases.
E- there are often real consequences/ EMOTIONAL impact in real life which do not occur in Lab experiments.
L- furthermore in lab experiments ps may show DEMAND characteristics as they know they are in an experiment so it DECREASES INTERNAL VALIDITY
Demand characteristics are less likely in real world settings.
What is opposing research on the weapon Focus effect?
Research by PICKEL (1988).
- participants shown a video of a man walking up to reception in a hairdressers either holding a :
. Pair of scissors
. Handgun
. Wallet
. A raw chicken
What were the findings of PICKEL?
EWT was significantly WORSE in the high unusualness conditions (chicken and gun)-
-This suggests that weapon focus is due to UNUSUALNESS of the object not the anxiety (associated with it).
- This also suggests that weapon focus is an INVALID EXPLANATION of eyewitness recall.
