Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: anxiety

Question 1

explain how anxiety can have a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)

Answer 1

• anxiety creates psychological arousal in the body which prevents us from paying attention to important cues. The focus on a weapon reduces a witnesses recall for other details of the event

Question 2

explain the procedure and findings of research conducted on anxiety and its negative effects on recall through weapon focus.

Answer 2

Procedure: Johnson and Scott (1976). 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 saw a man walk past them carrying a pen and with grease in his hands. Other participants heard a heated argument, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out the room, holding a knife covered in blood. This was the high anxiety condition.

Findings and conclusions: the participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos. 49% of those who had seen the man with the pen were able to identify him. 33% of the participants who saw the man with the knife covered in blood were able to identify him. Results in the tunnel theory and those the effects of weapon focus.

Question 3

how can anxiety have a positive effect on recall

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

explain the research into anxiety as a positive effect on recall

Answer 4

Procedure: Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted a study in 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 4-5 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.

Findings and conclusions: the witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled or accuracy after 5 months. Those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for th less stressed group)

Suggests that anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitness memory in real world context and may even enhance it.

Question 5

how are the contradictory findings to anxiety explained

Answer 5

• Yerkes and Dodson (1908) said the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U.
• 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 and crime/incident we become emotionally and physiologically aroused. we experience anxiety (emotional) and physiological changes (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 suffers a drastic decline.