Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: anxiety Flashcards
Anxiety
Definition
└anxiety: a state of emotional and physical arousal that is a normal reaction to stressful situations
└emotions: worried thoughts and feelings of tension
└physical changes: increased heart rate and sweatiness
Anxiety has a negative effect on recall
Explanation
└anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body
└prevents us from paying attention to important cues= recall worse
Anxiety has a negative effect on recall study
Person
Johnson and Scott (1976)
Anxiety has a negative effect on recall study
Procedure and findings
Procedure
└told participants they were taking part in a lab study and were seated in a waiting room
└participants heard an argument
└low anxiety condition: man walked through carrying a pen with grease on his hands
└high anxiety condition: man walked through carrying a paper knife covered with blood
Findings
└participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos
└percentage that correctly identified him:
└low anxiety condition: 49%
└high anxiety condition: 33%
└tunnel theory: witness’s attention focuses on the weapon as it is the source of the anxiety
Anxiety has a positive effect on recall
Explanation
└anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body
└fight or flight response triggered, increases alertness, more aware of cues= recall better
Anxiety has a positive effect on recall study
Person
John Yuille and Judith Cutshall (1986)
Anxiety has a positive effect on recall study
Procedure and findings
Procedure
└study of a real life shooting in a shop in Vancouver, Canada
└owner shot thief dead
└13/21 witnesses took part in study
└interviews 4-5 months after shooting
└compared with original police interviews
└accuracy determined by number of details reported in each account
└witnesses asked to rate stress at time of incident using 7 point scale
└asked if they had any emotional problems since
└e.g. sleeplessness
Findings
└witnesses generally accurate in their accounts- little change in accuracy after 5 months
└some details less accurate
└colour of items, age/height/weight estimates
└participants that reported highest levels of stress were most accurate
└high stress: 88%
└lower stress: 75%
Effect of anxiety on recall
Explaining the contradictory findings
People
Robert Yerkes and John Dodson (1908) Kenneth Deffenbacher (1983)
Effect of anxiety on recall
Explaining the contradictory findings
└Robert Yerkes and John Dodson (1908)
└relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U
└Kenneth Deffenbacher (1983)
└applied Yerkes-dodson law to EWT
└lower levels of anxiety= low accuracy of recall
└memory becomes more accurate as anxiety increases, till an optimum level is reached
└higher levels of stress= low accuracy of recall
Effect of anxiety on recall
Limitations
Summary
- Weapon focus may not be relevant: Johnson and Scott (1976), Pickel (1998)
- Field studies sometimes lack control
- Ethical issues
- Demand characteristics in lab studies
- Inverted U explanation too simplistic
Effect of anxiety on recall
Limitations
Weapon focus may not be relevant
└Johnson and Scott (1976) study on weapon focus
└may test surprise rather than anxiety
└Pickel (1998)
└experiment using scissors, handgun, wallet, raw chicken as hand held items in hairdressing salon video
└eyewitness accuracy high in low anxiety, low unusualness condition (scissors)
└eyewitness accuracy low in high anxiety, high unusualness condition (chicken and handgun)
└suggests weapon focus due to unusualness rather than anxiety
└tells us nothing specifically about effects of anxiety on EWT
Effect of anxiety on recall
Limitations
Field studies sometimes lack control
└researchers often interview real life eyewitnesses after event
└things could have happened in meantime
└post event discussions- with other people/ media/ police interviews
└limitation of field studies as extraneous variables not controlled and these may be responsible for accuracy instead
Effect of anxiety on recall
Limitations
Ethical issues
└creating anxiety in participants unethical
└may subject people to psychological harm just for research purposes
└real life studies beneficial as don’t need to create traumatic event
└doesn’t challenge findings, but questions ethics (Johnson and Scott)
└do benefits of research outweigh ethical issues
Effect of anxiety on recall
Limitations
Demand characteristics in lab studies
└most lab studies show participants filmed/staged crimes
└most participants are aware of this
└may work out questions that are going to be asked
Effect of anxiety on recall
Limitations
Inverted U explanation too simplistic
└anxiety is difficult to define and measure accurately
└has too many elements
└cognitive, behavioural, emotional, physical
└inverted U explanation assumes only one of these is linked to poor performance
└physiological (physical) arousal
