Eyewitness testimony: anxiety

Question 1

anxiety makes recall worse (Johnson & Scott 1976)

Answer 1

A confederate came out of a room holding either a pen or a blood stained paper knife (the weapon). They were asked to identify the person from 50 photos.
FINDINGS: recognition rate was only 33% when holding the weapon (tunnel theory)

Question 2

anxiety improves recall (Yuille & Cutshall 1986)

Answer 2

They interviewed 13 witnesses of an armed robbery after 4-5 months and stated how anxious they were.
FINDINGS: 88% of those with high anxiety scores were more likely to correctly identify the robber as opposed to 75% in the low anxiety condition.

Question 3

Yerkes-Dodson law

Answer 3

states that moderate anxiety can improve recall whereas too much or too little anxiety can make it worse.

Question 4

Evaluation weakness: Pickel (1988)

Answer 4

found that participants recall of someone in a hairdressing salon was poorer when the person was holding a chicken and a handgun as opposed to when they were holding scissors or a wallet. (unusualness of the item)

Question 5

Evaluation weakness: unethical

Answer 5

exposing participants to a weapon could have led them to experiencing distress and psychological harm.

Question 6

Evaluation weakness: lack of control of extraneous variables

Answer 6

Yuille & Cutshall’s study took place in a field setting so there could be other factors affecting the accuracy of recall.

Question 7

Evaluation weakness: Yerkes-Dodson law too simplistic

Answer 7

it focuses on the physiological component of anxiety but ignores the behavioural, cognitive and emotional aspects.