Eyewitness testimony: Anxiety Flashcards
What is the weapon focus effect?
When a crime involves a weapon it creates anxiety. This anxiety causes the witness’s attention to be focused on the weapon, leaving less attention for other details of the event.
When was Johnson and Scott’s weapon focus study?
1976
What was the procedure of Johnson and Scott’s 1976 weapon focus study?
Participants sat in a waiting room thinking they were about to take part in a lab study. Low anxiety condition- heard a casual conversation then saw a man walk through the waiting room with a pen and grease on his hands. High anxiety condition- heard a heated argument and breaking glass followed by a man holding a knife covered in blood. They were then asked to pick the man out of 50 photographs.
What were the findings of Johnson and Scott’s 1976 weapon focus study?
49% in the low anxiety condition and 33% in the high one were able to identify the man.
When was Yuille and Cutshall’s anxiety study?
1986
What was the procedure of Yuille and Cutshall’s anxiety study?
In an actual crime, a gun shop owner shot a thief dead. 13 witnesses agreed to participate in the study. They were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident. The information was recalled and compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting. Witnesses rated how stressed they were at the time of the incident.
What were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall’s anxiety study?
There was little change after 5 months. Participants who reported higher levels of stress were most accurate. Anxiety doesn’t appear to reduce the accuracy of EWT for a real-life event and may even enhance it.
What is the inverted-U theory?
Yerkes and Dodson (1908) argue that the relationship between performance and arousal/stress is an inverted U. Performance peaks at a medium level of arousal.
Limitation- anxiety may not be relevant to weapon focus. Pickel 1998.
J&S’s participants may have focused on the weapon due to surprise, not anxiety. Pickel in 1998 found that the identification of the criminal was the poorest when the object in their hand was unexpected- e.g raw chicken. Suggests the weapons effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety.
Strength- Valentine and Mesuot 2009
Used a heart rate to divide visitors to the London Dungeon’s labyrinth into low and high anxiety groups. High anxiety groups were less accurate at identifying a target person. Supports the claim that anxiety has a negative effect on immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event.
Strength- Christianson and Hubinette 1993
Interviewed witnesses to a bank robbery. Some were direct victims (high anxiety) and bystanders (low anxiety). Direct victims most accurate.
