factors affecting eyewitness testimony: anxiety evaluation

Question 1

what does it mean when we say that weapon focus effect may not be relevant

Answer 1

The study by Johnson and Scott on the weapon focus may test surprise rather than anxiety

The reason participants focus on the weapon may be because they are surprised by what they see rather than they are scared

Pickel (1998) conducted an experiment where, in a video, a thief entered a hairdressing salon holding scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken as the handheld - items in a hairdressing salon video (where scissors would be low anxiety/ unusualness)

Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness condition ( chicken and handgun)
This suggests that the weapon effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/ threat and therefore tells us nothing specific about the effects of anxiety on EWT

Question 2

what does it mean when we say that field studies often lack control

Answer 2

Researchers usually interview real-life eyewitnesses sometime after the event.

All sorts of things will have happened to the participants in the meantime that the researchers have no control over

e. g. discussion with other people about the event
- effects of being interviewed by the police ( post-event discussions)

This is a limitation of field studies/ research because it is possible that these extraneous variables may be responsible for the accuracy of the recall
The effects of anxiety may be overwhelmed by these other factors, and impossible to assess by the time thee participants are interviewed

Question 3

what are the ethical issues in the studies we have looked at

Answer 3

creating anxiety in participants is very risky.
This is because it is unethical because it may subject people to psychological harm purely for the purposes of research

This is why real-life studies are so beneficial as psychologists interview people who have already witnessed a real-life event, so there is no need to create it.

This does not challenge the findings of the study but does question the need for the research
However, the benefits of the research may outweigh the issues

Question 4

what does it mean when we say that the inverted U explanation is too simplistic

Answer 4

Anxiety is very difficult to define and measure accurately
One reason for this is that has many elements - cognitive, behavioural, emotional and physical.
But, the inverted U explanation assumes only one of these is linked to poor performance - physiological (physical) arousal

The inverted U explanation is, therefore, an incomplete explanation of how anxiety affects EWT as the theory ignores the other components of anxiety
e.g. the cognitive element.
This means anxiety might have a different effect on EWT than the one predicted by the theory

Question 5

what does it mean when we say that the research has real-world application

Answer 5

The research into how anxiety affects recall has real-world application

Understanding the effect of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT could help determine the credibility of a witness.
We now know that there is an optimal level of anxiety which will produce maximum accuracy

The findings of research in this area are useful for those responsible for questioning witnesses