factors affecting accuracy of ewt - anxiety ao3

Question 1

limitation of reserach into investigating anxiety effect into ewt - contradictory evidnece

Answer 1

P: one limitation into investigating anxiety effects on accuracy of eyewitness testimony is contradictory evidence.
E: for example whilst Johsonn and Scott’s 1976 research suggests anxiety has a negative effect on recall, Yuille and Cutshall 1986 conducted a study of an actual shooting whereby 13 of 21 witnesses participated. They were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident and this was compared to their original interview. They were also asked to rate their stress in a 7 point scale. They found that accuracy was very good with those pts reporting high levels of stress having more accuracy compared to lower levels - 88% vs 75%.
E; this therefore suggests that in some cases anxiety doesn’t have a detrimental effect on accuracy of ewt in a real world context and may even enhance it.
L; therefore the contradictory evidence weakens the conclusions reached from research into investigating the effects of anxiety on eyewitness testimony.

Question 2

limiation of res into anx ewt - weapon focus effect may be irrelevant

Answer 2

p; research into weapon focus effect has shown that it may in fact not be relevant as initally thought
e; pickel 1981 suggested that the reason ehy ppl focus on the weapon is bc they are suprised at what they see rather than being scared
e- in a study pickel used scissors a handgun a wallet or raw chicken as hand held items in a hairdressers video. ew acc was significantly poorer in the high unusalness conditions (chicken and handgun)
L; this suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusalness rather than anxiety/threat and thus tells us notning abiut effects of anxiety on ewt

Question 3

Ethical issues - weakness

Answer 3

P: A final criticism of research into the impact of anxiety, is that numerous ethical guidelines are often broken.
E:For example in Johnson and Scotts study the participants were deceived about the nature of the experiment, as they thought they were being invited to have an interview and they were not protected from harm.

E: Johnson & Scott also exposed some of the participants to a man holding a bloodied knife, which could have caused extreme feelings of anxiety.
L:This is an issue, as these participants may have left the experiment feeling exceptionally stressed and anxious, especially if they, or someone they knew, had been involved in a knife crime.