Eyewitness Testimony: Anxiety Flashcards
What was the aim of Johnson and Scott’s (1976) study on eyewitness testimony?
To see the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
The study aimed to analyze how different anxiety levels influenced participants’ ability to accurately identify a suspect.
What were the two conditions participants were exposed to in the study?
- No-weapon condition
- Weapon condition
In the no-weapon condition, participants witnessed a conversation about equipment failure, while in the weapon condition, they witnessed a heated exchange followed by the appearance of a bloodied letter opener.
What did participants in the ‘no-weapon’ condition see?
A person holding a pen with grease on his hands
This scenario was designed to create a low-anxiety context.
What did participants in the ‘weapon’ condition see?
A person holding a bloodied letter opener
This scenario was designed to create a high-anxiety context.
What was the percentage of correct identifications in the ‘no-weapon’ condition?
49%
Participants correctly identified the target nearly half of the time when there was no weapon present.
What was the percentage of correct identifications in the ‘weapon’ condition?
33%
This indicates a significant decrease in accuracy when a weapon was present.
What conclusion was drawn from Johnson and Scott’s study?
Witnesses are less accurate when a weapon is present
The presence of a weapon distracts witnesses, leading to lower identification accuracy.
What was the overall average accuracy of eyewitness testimony as indicated in Christiansen and hubinette’s study in 1986
70%
This average reflects the general performance of eyewitnesses across various contexts.
What does the Yerkes-Dodson law state regarding performance and anxiety?
People perform best at intermediate levels of arousal
This law suggests that too little or too much anxiety can hinder performance.
True or False: Higher anxiety always leads to better performance in eyewitness identification.
False
The study indicates that higher anxiety can impair the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
What is the weapon focus effect?
The phenomenon where the presence of a weapon in a crime scene can distract witnesses and impair their ability to identify the perpetrator.
Originated from research indicating that people focus on the weapon rather than the perpetrator’s face.
What did the 1998 study by pickel suggest about the cause of anxiety in witness identification?
Anxiety may not be the primary cause of impaired identification; rather, it could be the surprise of the situation.
This challenges previous assumptions about the impact of anxiety on memory.
Who conducted a real-life case study that contradicted Loftus’s findings on the weapon focus effect?
Yuille and Cutshall.
Their study involved witnesses of a real shooting incident.
What were the main findings of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
Witnesses provided accurate eyewitness accounts 4-5 months later, with little change in major details.
Only minor details like estimates of age, height, and weight changed.
What effect did anxiety have on eyewitness testimony according to Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
Anxiety experienced at the time of the event had little or no effect on subsequent memory accuracy.
This finding refutes the weapon focus effect.
What is a key criticism of the weapon focus effect?
The violence of the crime may not significantly affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
Critics argue that extreme anxiety does not impair memory as previously thought.
True or False: Loftus’s 1979 findings support the weapon focus effect.
True.
Loftus’s research suggested that the presence of a weapon negatively impacts eyewitness identification.
What was the age range of witnesses in Yuille and Cutshall’s follow-up study?
15 to 32 years old.
This demographic detail is relevant for understanding the sample used in the study.
What was the primary focus of Yuille and Cutshall’s research?
To investigate the effect of anxiety on eyewitness memory in a real-life shooting incident.
Their findings provided a contrasting perspective to laboratory studies on the topic.
Fill in the blank: The findings of Yuille and Cutshall suggest that eyewitness accuracy is not significantly affected by extreme ________.
anxiety
This challenges the assumptions made by earlier studies regarding the influence of emotional states on memory.
