Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: Anxiety

Question 1

Anxiety is thought to affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. What is anxiety?

Answer 1

Anxiety is a state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension. Physical changes include an increased heart rate and sweatiness. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations but can affect the accuracy and detail of EWT.

Question 2

Does anxiety make eyewitness recall better or worse?

Answer 2

It is unclear whether anxiety makes eyewitness recall better or worse. There is research to support both possibilities.

Question 3

How can anxiety have a negative effect on recall?

Answer 3

Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues. As a result, recall is worse.

Question 4

What approach is used when studying the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT?

Answer 4

One approach to studying anxiety and EWT has been to look at the effect of weapons on accuracy of recall of the witnesses.

Question 5

Who conducted research in support of the theory that anxiety has a negative effect on recall?

Answer 5

Johnson and Scott (1976)

Question 6

How did Johnson and Scott conduct research into the negative effects of anxiety on recall?

Answer 6

Johnson and Scott led their participants to believe they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument in the next room. This created two conditions: the ‘low anxiety’ condition and the ‘high anxiety’ condition.

Question 7

What happened in the ‘low-anxiety’ condition?

Answer 7

In the ‘low-anxiety’ condition a man walked through the waiting area, carrying a pen and with grease on his hands.

Question 8

What happened in the ‘high-anxiety’ condition?

Answer 8

In the ‘high-anxiety’ condition, participants overheard the same heated argument, but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man then walked out of the room holding a paper knife that was covered in blood.

Question 9

What did Johnson and Scott ask their participants to do following the investigation?

Answer 9

After the experiment had taken place, participants were asked to pick out the man from a set of 50 photos.

Question 10

What percentage of participants in the low-anxiety condition were able to identify the man successfully?

Answer 10

49% of participants in the low-anxiety condition were able to identify the man from the photos.

Question 11

What percentage of participants in the high-anxiety condition were able to identify the man successfully?

Answer 11

33% of participants in the high-anxiety condition were able to identify the man from the photos.

Question 12

A lower percentage of participants in the high-anxiety condition were able to successfully identify the man from the set of 50 photos. Explain why.

Answer 12

This is because the witness’s attention narrowed to focus on the weapon due to it being a source of anxiety. This is known as the tunnel theory.

Question 13

How can anxiety have a negative effect on recall?

Answer 13

The stress of witnessing a crime or accident creates anxiety through physiological arousal in the body. The fight-or-flight response is triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event because we become more aware of cues in the situation.

Question 14

Which two psychologists conducted research into the positive effects of anxiety on recall?

Answer 14

Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

Question 15

How did Yuille and Cutshall investigate the positive effects of anxiety on recall?

Answer 15

Yuille and Cutshall conducted a study of a real-life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead.

Question 16

How many witnesses were there in the gun shop?

Answer 16

There were 21 witnesses in the gun shop

Question 17

Of the 21 witnesses, how many agreed to take part in the study?

Answer 17

13 of the 21 witnesses agreed to take part in the study.

Question 18

When were interviews held with the witnesses?

Answer 18

The interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident had taken place. These were then compared with the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting. Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account.

Question 19

How were participants asked to record the severity of their anxiety?

Answer 19

The witnesses were asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident, using a 7-point scale. They were also asked if they had experienced any emotional problems since the event, such as sleeplessness.

Question 20

What did Yuille and Cutshall find from their research into the effects of anxiety on recall?

Answer 20

They found that the witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount of accuracy after five months. Some details, such as recollection of the colour of items, were however less accurate. Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group).

Question 21

What is the Yerkes-Dodson law?

Answer 21

According to Yerkes and Dodson, the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an ‘inverted U’. This concept is summarised in the Yerkes-Dodson law.

Question 22

Who applied the Yerkes-Dodson Law to EWT?

Answer 22

Deffenbacher (1983) applied the Yerkes-Dodson Law to EWT.

Question 23

How can the Yerkes-Dodson law be applied to EWT?

Answer 23

Lower levels of anxiety produce lower levels of recall accuracy. Memory becomes more accurate as the level of anxiety increases. However, there comes a point where the optimal level of anxiety is reached. This is the point of maximum accuracy. If an eyewitness experiences any more stress than this, then their recall of the event suffers a drastic decline.