Factors Affecting The Accuracy Of Eyewirness Testimony Flashcards
What is anxiety
Anxiety 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 it can affect the accuracy and detail of eyewitness testimony.
How can anxiety have negative effect on recall
Anxiety created in body prevents us paying attention to important cues do recall is worse
What is an approach to study anxiety and EWT
Look at the effect of the presence of weapon which creates anxiety. This leads to focus on weapon. Reducing witness recall for other details of events
What is the procedure of anxiety has negative affect on recall
- Craig Johnson and William Scott (1976) did research on this.
-Their participants believed they were taking part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participants in the low-anxiety condition heard a casual conversation in the next room and then saw a man walk past them
-carrying a pen and with grease on his hands.
-Other participants overheard a heated argument, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. - A man walked out of the room, holding a knife covered in blood.
-This was the high-anxiety condition.
What was the findings and conclusion for negative effect on recall
-The participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos,
-49% who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him.
-The corresponding figure for the participants who had seen the man holding the blood-covered knife was 33%.
-The tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events. Weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect.
How does anxiety have a positive affect on recall
Witnessing a stressful event creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body. The fight or flight response is triggered, increasing alertness. This may improve memory for the event as we become more aware of cues in the situation.
What’s the procedure for anxiety has positive effect on recall
-John Vuille and Judith Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of an actual shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada.
-The shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses - 13 took part in the study.
-They were interviewed four to five months after the incident and these interviews were compared with the original police interviews at the time of the shooting.
-Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account.
-The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident (on a 7-point scale) and whether they had any emotional problems since the event (eg. sleeplessness).
What were the findings and conclusions
The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled or accuracy after five months
- though some details were less accurate, such as recollection of the colour of items and age/height/weight estimates.
-Those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group).
- suggests that anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitness memory in a real-world context and may even enhance it.
Explain the contradictory findings
According to Robert Yerkes and John Dodson (1908) the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U’ (see graph below).
Kenneth Deffenbacher 1983) reviewed 21 studies of EWT and noted contradictory findings on the effects of anxiety. He used the Yerkes-Dodson Law to explain the findings. When we witness a crime accident we become emotionally and physiologically aroused. That is, we experience anxiety (emotional) as well as physiological changes in our body (the fight or flight response). Lower levels of anxiety/arousal produce lower levels of recall accuracy, and then memory becomes more accurate as the level of anxiety/arousal increases. However, there is an optimal level of anxiety, which is the point of maximum accuracy. If a person (or eyewitness) experiences any more arousal, then their recall
