factors affecting eyewitness testimony : anxiety

Question 1

what effects does anxiety have?

Answer 1

emotional and physicals effects
- not clear whether these effects make eyewitness recall better or worse

Question 2

what does anxiety create?

Answer 2

anxiety creates physiological arousal (anxiety has negative effect on recall)

Question 3

what does physiological arousal prevent?

Answer 3

it prevents us from paying attention to important cues

Question 4

anxiety has a negative effect on recall study - PROCEDURE

Answer 4

• Johnson and Scott (1976) lab participants to believe they were partaking in a lab study, while in waiting room, they heard an ‘argument’ from another room.
  1. low anxiety condition - man walked through carrying a pen with grease on his hands
  2. high anxiety condition - sound of breaking glass and man walked out of room with paper knife covered in blood.

Question 5

anxiety has a negative effect on recall - FINDINGS

Answer 5

49% identified man from 50 pictures from low anxiety groups
33% for high anxiety group
- tunnel theory of memory argues the witnesses attention narrows to focus on the weapon because it is a source of anxiety

Question 6

anxiety has a positive effect on recall

Answer 6

stress triggers fight or flight which increases alertness - become more aware of cues in situation

Question 7

anxiety has a positive effect on recall PROCEDURE

Answer 7

• Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted real life study where shop owner was shot dead. 13 of 21 witnesses took park.
• interviews took place 4-5 months after incident, and compared to police interviews straight after the crime.
• accuracy determined by details reported in each account
• witnesses ranked their stress at the time of incident out of 7 and any emotional problems since.

Question 8

anxiety has a positive effect on recall - FINDINGS

Answer 8

• little change in accuracy. participants who reported higher levels of stress were more accurate

Question 9

explaining the contradictory findings

Answer 9

Yerkes and Dodson’s (1908) inverted U theory
- Kenneth Deffenbacher (1983) applied this theory to EWT - memory increases with anxiety until it reaches optimal level of anxiety. if eyewitness experiences more stress, recall of event declines

Question 10

what does Yerkes and Dodson’s (11908) ‘inverted U theory’ show

Answer 10

performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point where it will decrease drastically

Question 11

factors affecting EWT - anxiety - EVALUATION - weapon focus effect may not be relevant

Answer 11

• Johnson and Scott’s study may test surprise rather than anxiety
• Pickle (1998) conducted another study where items were more unusual - eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer

Question 12

factors affecting EWT - anxiety - EVALUATION - field studies sometimes lack control

Answer 12

• EWT can be affected by extraneous variables
• between event and eyewitness interview, other events could have taken place - altering what they remember
• e.g. spoken to others, media, post event discussions

Question 13

factors affecting EWT - anxiety - EVALUATION - there are ethical issues

Answer 13

• subjecting participants to psychological harm (recreating events that wouldn’t necessarily happen to them) - JOHNSON AND SCOTT study

Question 14

factors affecting EWT - anxiety - EVALUATION - the inverted U explanation is too simplistic

Answer 14

• anxiety has many factors and - is difficult to define and measure
• inverted U explanation only factors in psychological arousal

Question 15

factors affecting EWT - anxiety - EVALUATION - demand characteristics operate in lab studies of anxiety

Answer 15

• many participants will know the film is staged for the study (aware they are being watched)
• they may work out questions they are going to be asked about what they have seen