Eyewitness Testimony: Anxiety

Question 1

Why might anxiety have a negative effect on recall?

Answer 1

It increases arousal, so we pay less attention to cues which makes recall worse.

Question 2

Why might the presence of a weapon create anxiety?

Answer 2

We focus on the weapon as it evokes the most fear and we pay less attention to non fearful things.

Question 3

Which 2 researchers studied the idea that anxiety has a negative effect on recall?

Answer 3

Johnson and Scott

Question 4

In Johnson and Scott’s study, what did type of experiment did PPTs believe they were taking part in?

Answer 4

A lab study.

Question 5

Where were PPTs seated before the study ‘began’?

Answer 5

In a waiting room.

Question 6

Name the 2 conditions PPTs could have been placed in in Johnson and Scott’s study.

Answer 6

Low anxiety
High anxiety

Question 7

Describe the low anxiety condition in Johnson and Scott’s study.

Answer 7

PPTs overheard a casual conversation in another room and then saw a man holding a pen with grease on his hands.

Question 8

Describe the high anxiety condition in Johnson and Scott’s study.

Answer 8

PPTs overheard an argument in the next room and the sound of a window smashing. They then saw a man holding a bloody knife.

Question 9

In Johnson and Scott’s study, PPTs then had to select the man they saw from a set of how many photos?

Answer 9

50

Question 10

What percentage of people in the low anxiety condition in Johnson and Scott’s study correctly identified the man from the set of photos?

Answer 10

49%

Question 11

What percentage of people in the high anxiety condition in Johnson and Scott’s study correctly identified the man from the set of photos?

Answer 11

33%

Question 12

Johnson and Scott’s findings demonstrate what theory?
Explain this theory.

Answer 12

Tunnel theory.
This is where we focus excessively on things that scare us, so we remember them better, but we forget peripheral details as we pay less attention to them.

Question 13

How might anxiety have a positive effect on recall?

Answer 13

High anxiety creates high arousal. This triggers the fight or flight response which increases alertness, which may improve our memory in stressful situations.

Question 14

Name the 2 researchers who studied anxiety having a positive effect on recall.

Answer 14

Yuille and Cutshall

Question 15

Name the type of experiment Yuille and Cutshall used.

Answer 15

Natural experiment.

Question 16

Explain the real life event that PPTs in Yuille and Cutshall’s study would have witnessed.

Answer 16

A gun shop owner shot a thief dead.

Question 17

How many out of the total witnesses of the event took part in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

Answer 17

13/21

Question 18

How was the accuracy of recall 5 months later determined in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

Answer 18

They compared the amount of correct details given at the recent interview to the amount given in the original police interview.

Question 18

How long after witnessing the stressful event were PPTs re-interviewed in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
These interviews were compared to what…

Answer 18

5 months.
These interviews were compared to the original police interviews.

Question 19

How were witnesses asked to rate their stress in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

Answer 19

They used a 7 point scale to say how stressed they were during the shooting.

Question 20

PPTs in Yuille and Cutshall’s study were asked to disclose whether they have had any ___________ ____________ since the study.

Answer 20

They were asked whether they have had any emotional problems since the shooting.

Question 21

Briefly describe the accuracy of PPTs recall in Yuille and Cutshall’s study.

Answer 21

PPTs recall was generally accurate and little had changed in their accounts, aside from small details such as colours of items.

Question 22

What was the percentage of accuracy for PPTs who reported higher stress levels in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

Answer 22

88%

Question 23

What was the percentage of accuracy for PPTs who reported lower stress levels in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

Answer 23

75%

Question 24

What can we conclude from Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

Answer 24

Anxiety does not always have a detrimental effect on eye witness testimony.

Question 25

How does the Yerkes Dodson law explain contradictory findings?

Answer 25

The law states that as arousal increases, our performance increases.
Performance eventually reaches an optimum.
After this, arousal continues to increase, but our performance decreases, so we forget.

Question 26

Explain the strength that there is evidence supporting the view that anxiety has a negative effect on recall.
Use the example from Valentine and Mesout’s study who measured anxiety using heart rate in response to the London Dungeons Labyrinth.
Explain how their recall was affected by anxiety, and what this shows.

Answer 26

Valentine and Mesouts study supports research on weapon focus, finding negative effects on recall. They used heart rate, an objective measure, to divide PPTs into high and low anxiety groups. In this study, anxiety (measured with higher heart rates) clearly disrupted PPTs ability to call details about an actor in the London Dungeons Labyrinth. This suggests that high levels of anxiety do have negative effects on recall.

Question 27

Explain the strength that there is evidence showing that anxiety can have a positive effect on accuracy of recall.
Explain Christianson and Hubinette’s study who measured recall accuracy of those either directly involved or indirectly involved in a bank robbery.
State the percentage of overall accuracy.
Which group had the most accurate recall?

Answer 27

Christianson and Hubinette interviewed 58 witnesses of bank robberies in Sweden. Some witnesses were directly involved (such as they worked in the bank), or they were indirectly involved (bystanders). Researchers assumed that those directly involved would have experienced the most anxiety. It was found that recall was 75% accurate across all witnesses, with those directly involved having higher accuracy. These findings confirm that anxiety doesn’t reduce accuracy of eye witness testimony and may even enhance it.

Question 28

Explain the limitation that Johnson and Scott’s study may not have actually tested anxiety.
Use the counter evidence from Pickel who investigated the use of a gun, wallet, raw chicken and a pair of scissors in a hair salon.
What were scissors said to be in terms of their anxiety/unusualness levels in the hair salon?
Eyewitness accuracy was poorest in which conditions of accuracy/unusualness? (Which objects were these?)
What does this suggest about weapon focus effect?

Answer 28

The reason PPTs focused on the weapon could have been because of surprise, not anxiety. Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a gun, a wallet and some raw chicken as handheld items in a hair salon. Scissors were considered high anxiety, low unusualness. Eyewitness accuracy was very poor in high unusualness conditions (chicken and handgun). This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety, telling us nothing about effects of anxiety on eye witness testimony.

Question 29

Explain the limitation of their being problems with the inverted U theory.
The Yerkes Dodson Law is good at explaining why anxiety has which 2 opposite effects on recall?
What 3 elements does the Yerkes Dodson Law ignore about anxiety?
What element does the Yerkes Dodson Law only focus on?
Which of these elements may actually be very important in stressful situations?

Answer 29

It appears to be a reasonable explanation of the contradictory findings linking anxiety with increased and decreased eye witness recall. On the other hand, it ignores the fact that anxiety has many other elements, including cognitive, emotional and behavioural. The Yerkes Dodson law only focuses on physical arousal and assumes that this is the only aspect linked to EWT, but also in a stressful situation, cognitive factors may be important, suggesting the theory is too simplistic.