Eyewitness Testimony (Anxiety) Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A state of emotional and physical arousal
- normal reaction to stressful situations but can affect the accuracy of of recall
Why is there specific research into anxiety?
-Because real life events have high anxiety content that can greatly affect recall
- anxiety might divert attention away from important aspects of an event
- loftus et al (1987) referred to this as the ‘weapon focus effect’
What is the weapon focus effect?
- if a person is carrying a weapon, witnesses focus on the weapon rather than a persons face
- this negatively affects their ability to recall facial details of armed criminals
- so anxiety can divert attention from important aspects of a situation
Who conducted a study that anxiety has a negative affect and when?
Johnson & Scott (1976)
What type of experiment was Johnson’s and Scott’s and what were the variables?
- p’s sat in a waiting room believing they were going to be part of a lab study
- lab experiment
IV= low anxiety vs high anxiety
DV= accuracy of recall
Johnson and Scott’s procedure
- each p heard an argument in the next room
- low anxiety: man walked through waiting room carrying a pen with grease on his hands
- high anxiety: argument accompanied by sound of breaking glass, man walked through room holding a paper knife covered in blood
Johnson and Scott’s findings
- 49% of p’s in low anxiety condition were able to identify him but in high anxiety it was only 33%
- argued that a witnesses attention is on the weapon as it is the source of danger/anxiety
Criticism of Johnson & Scott’s study
- may be testing surprise rather than anxiety as the reason p’s focus on the weapon may be because they are surprised rather than feeling anxious or scared
Pickel (1998) study
- conducted an experiment using scissors, handgun, wallet, raw chicken in a hairdressing salon
-eyewitness accuracy was poorer in the high unusualness conditions (handgun, chicken) suggesting weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than than anxiety/threat
Who conducted the study on anxiety having a positive effect and when?
Yuille & cutshall (1986)
What type of study was yuille and cutshalls and what were the variables?
Field
IV= police interviews vs researcher interviews
DV= effect of anxiety on accuracy of recall
Yuille and cutshalls procedure
- in a real life crime, a gun shop owner shot a thief dead
- 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate in the study
- p’s interviewed 4-5 months after incident and accounts were compared to police interviews at the time of the shooting
- witnesses rated how stressed they were at the time of the shooting
Yuille and cutshalls findings
- witnesses very accurate and there was little change
- some details less accurate (height, weight)
- p’s who reported the highest levels of stress were more accurate (88% compared to less stressed groups=75%)
What did yerkes and Dodson argue?
The relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U
Deffenbacher 1983
Used the yerkes Dodson law to explain how anxiety levels affect the accuracy of recall of events experienced
- moderate amounts of anxiety improve detail and accuracy of memory recall up to an optimal point
- after this, increases in anxiety lead to a decline in detail and accuracy of recall
Limitation - INVERTED U EXPLANATION TOO SIMPLISTIC
P - too simplistic
E - anxiety is difficult to define and measure accurately as it has many elements (cognitive, behavioural, emotional, physical) but inverted u explanation assumed only one of these is linked to poor performance (physical)
I&D - biological reductionism as it is simplifying the complex state of anxiety. Holistic approach would be more beneficial when considering the factors that contribute to anxiety
C - fails to account for other factors that affect the emotional experience of witnessing a crime
Limitation - ETHICAL GUIDELINES BROKEN
P - ethical guidelines broken so p’s deceived about nature of study which could’ve caused extreme anxiety
E - creating anxiety in p’s for the purpose of research is unethical which is why real life studies are beneficial
C - doesn’t challenge Johnson and Scott’s findings but does question the need for such research
Limitation - YUILLE & CUTSHALLS STUDY LACKS CONTROL OVER VARIABLES
P - lacks control over variables
E - real life witnesses interviewed after the event but many things may have happened in the meantime (post event discussion, reading articles) which may influence memory
C - these extraneous variables may be responsible for inaccurate/accurate recall rather than anxiety
