Factors affecting eye witness testimony (Memory)

Question 1

What is anxiety?

Answer 1

• An unpleasant emotional state where we fear that something might happen. It occurs in stressful situations, and can be accompanied with physiological arousal (increased heart rate, shallow breath).

Question 2

What is the weapon focus effect?

Answer 2

• Where the arousal may focus on more central details of the attack (e.g. weapon), than the most peripheral details (what was happening, what the perpetrator looked like etc.)

Question 3

What is the research to support the weapon focus effect?

Answer 3

Johnson and Scott (1976):
- Participants were asked to wait outside the lab, and they ‘overheard’ what they thought was a genuine exchange.
- Condition 1 –> heard an amicable conversation about equipment failure and then a man came out with greasy hands holding a pen.
- Condition 2 –> heard a hostile exchange and the sound of breaking furniture and then a man came out holding a bloody knife, covered in blood.
- Both groups were then shown 50 photographs and asked to identify the person leaving the lab –> they were informed the person may/may not be in the photographs.

Question 4

What is the findings of Johnson and Scotts study?

Answer 4

• Those in condition 1 correctly identified the target 49% of the time.
• Those in condition 2 correctly identified the man 33% of the time.
  In conclusion, Loftis claimed that the participants exposed to the knife had higher levels of anxiety and were more likely to focus their attention on the weapon –> confirming the weapon focus effect.
• Therefore, the anxiety associated with seeing a knife reduced the accuracy of eye witness testimony.