factors affecting eye witness testimony ; anxiety

Question 1

anxiety has a negative effect on recall
Johnson and Scott 1976
procedure

Answer 1

led participants to believe they are taking part in a lab study
while seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument to take place in the next room
- low anxiety condition
a man then walked through carrying a pen with grease on his hands
- high anxiety condition
heard glass break then saw a man holding a paper knife that was covered in blood

Question 2

anxiety has a negative effect on recall
Johnson and Scott 1976
findings

Answer 2

participants later picked the man out of 50 photos
49% who seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him
33% who seen the man with the knife were able to identify him
TUNNEL THEORY
argue witness’s attention narrows to focus on a weapon as it is a source of anxiety

Question 3

anxiety has a positive effect on recall
Yuille and cutshall 1986
procedure

Answer 3

conducted a study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in canda
the shop owner shot a thief dead , there were 21 witnesses , 13 agreed to take part
interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident and compared to original police interviews
accuracy was determined by the number of detail reported in each account
witness was also asked how stressed they felt at the time using a 7 point scale, and asked if the had any emotional problems since the event such as sleeplessness

Question 4

anxiety has a positive effect on recall
Yuille and cutshall 1986
findings

Answer 4

the witness were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount of accuracy after 5 months , though some details were less accurate , such as recollection of the colour of item and age height weight estimates . those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate . 88% compared to 75% for the less stressed group

Question 5

explaining the contradictatory findings

Answer 5

Yerkes Dodson Law
graph like an inverted U
lower levels of anxiety produce lower levels of recall accuracy
memory becomes more accurate as level of accuracy increases
optimal level of anxiety gibing maximum accuracy
any more stress , recall declines massively

Question 6

weapon focus effect may not be relevant
weakness

Answer 6

Johnson and Scott study on the weapon focus may test surprise rather than anxiety
participants may focus on the weapon as they are surprised at what they see not because they are scared
Pickrell 1998
conducted an experiment using scissors a hand gun a wallet or raw chicken as the hand held items in a hairdressers .
eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions chicken ans handgun
this suggests that weapon focus effect is due to unusualness and surprise not due to stressnand therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on ewt

Question 7

field studies lack control
weakness

Answer 7

using interviews from real life accidents sometime after the event lacks validity as they have no control over what happened to the participants since eg discussions with others accounts read or seen in the media ,effects of police interview and so forth . post event discussion .
a limit as it is possible these extraneous variables may be responsible for the accuracy for recall and therefore cannot distinguish cause and effect .

Question 8

ethics
weakness

Answer 8

creating anxiety in participants is potentially unethical as it can cause pyshcological harm
this is why real life tidies are so important as the physcologists does not need to create the anxiety s they have witnessed a real life event

Question 9

Yerkes Dodson Law
weakness

Answer 9

too simplistic
anxiety is difficult to define and to measure accurately
it has many elements cognitive , behavourial and emotional and physical
but the law only assume one is linked to the poor performance . arousal

Question 10

demand characteristics
weakness

Answer 10

lab study