Factors affecting the accuracy of eye witness testimony: anxiety Flashcards
Explain the weapon focus effect.
Johnson and scott researched the weapon focus effect. While seated in a waiting room, participants in the low anxiety condition heard a crucial conversation in the next room and saw a man walk past them carrying a pen with grease on his hands. The other condition overheard a heated argument and heard broken glass. They saw the man walk out of the room holding a knife covered in blood. The participants were then layer told to pick the man out of a set from 50 photos. 49% who had been in the non anxiety condition managed to do it but only 33% in the anxiety conditioned did. This shows that in an anxiety inducing situation, we tend to focus on the weapon.
What did yuille and cutshall find about anxiety?
They conducted a study of an actual shooting in a gun shop in Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead and there were 21 witnesses. 13 witnesses were interviewed four or five months later after the incident and their interviews were compared with their original ones after the crime. The witnesses also asked to rate how stressed they felt at the time of the incident and wether they had had emotional problems since. The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and their was little change. Those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were the most accurate in their descriptions. This shows that anxiety does have an effect on the accuracy of eyewitness memory in a real world context.
Who explained the contradictory anxiety findings?
Yerkes and Dodston.
What is the yerkes and Dodson model?
Found that the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U. When we witness a crime/accident we become emotional and physiologically aroused and experience anxiety. This level of anxiety causes us to habe better recall as we are more alert as oppose to someone experiencing lower levels of anxiety. Memory becomes more accurate as the level of arousal increases however there is an optimum level of anxiety. if a person experienced more anxiety, then their recall would suffer a drastic decline.
Give a strength of anxiety as an explanation for factors affecting eye witness testimony (support for negative effects)
There is evidence to support the view that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of recall. For example, research has been done that supports the weapon focus effect. The researchers used heart rate to divide participants into high and low anxiety groups. In this study, anxiety clearly disrupted the participants ability to recall details about the actor in the London dungeons labyrinth. This suggests that a high level of anxiety does have a negative effect on immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event.
Give a limitation of anxiety as an explanation for factors affecting eyewitness testimony. (Unusualness and not anxiety)
One limitation of Johnson and Scott’s study is that it may not have tested anxiety. The reason participants focused on the weapon was probably because they were surprised rather than scared. Research has been conducted and in the experiment scissors, a hand gun, a wallet or a raw chicken were used as the hand held items in a hairdressing salon. Eye witness accuracy was significantly poorer in unusual conditions e.g chicken. This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat.
Give a strength of anxiety as a factor affecting eyewitness testimony.
Evidence showing that anxiety can have positive effects on the accuracy of recall. Researchers interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden. Some of the participants were directly involved or indirectly involved. It was found that recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses regardless of if they were directly involved or not. The direct witnesses were even more accurate. These findings from actual crimes confirm that anxiety does not reduce the accuracy of recall for eyewitness testimony. However, they interviewed participants over several months (4-15) after it happened. They therefore had no control over what happened during that time or wether they had post event discussions.
