L11: Anxiety And Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
Anxiety affecting eyewitness testimony
Anxiety is a state of apprehension, uncertainty and fear resulting from a threatening situation. When anxiety is high it can often impair both physical and psychological functioning. Anxiety that occurs when witnessing a crime can prevent accurate and detailed recall of that crime.
Weapon focus effect
Presence of a weapon increases anxiety and therefore could impair witnesses memory of that crime. People who observe violent crimes will often pay attention to the aspect of the situation posing the most threat to them because of the anxiety caused by these weapons. A witness may be able to describe the weapon in great detail, but not much about the criminal themselves.
Procedure- loftus
Loftus tested whether anxiety affected a persons ability to recognise a perpetrator of a crime. ‘Experimental condition’= participants overhead a heated conversation and sounds of breaking glass and furniture overturned. Then a man with a bloody letter opener walks out. ‘Control condition’ * participants overhear a conversation about a failed lab equipment before a man with grease on his hands emerges carrying a pen. Participants were then asked to identify the person they had just seen from 50 photos.
Findings- loftus
33% of participants in experimental condition recognised the photo of the person carrying the letter opener.
49% of participants in the pen condition recognised the photo of the person carrying the pen.
Loftus argued that people in the experimental condition focused on the letter opener as it was a weapon and could pose a threat to them.
Evaluation- (+) - violent film
Loftus and burns allocated participants into one of two conditions. One group watched a video of a violent crime where a boy was shot in the head and the other watched a non-violent film of a crime. Participants were less accurate in recall when they saw a short film with a gun than the other film.
Evaluation- (-)- ecological validity
This study lacks ecological validity. Although they were waiting in the reception area outside the lab, they may have anticipated that something was going to happen, which could have affected the accuracy of their judgements and the validity of the study.
Evaluation- (-) - ethical guidelines
This study violated ethical guidelines. The participants were deceived about the nature of the experiment and were not protected from psychological harm. The participants were exposed to a man they were led to believe had just killed someone with a bloody knife which may cause them extreme distress. Especially if someone they knew or themslevshad been involved in knife crime.
Evaluation- (-) Yuille and Cutshall
They investigated the effect of anxiety in a real life shooting where one person was killed and the other seriously injured. 21 witnesses were originally interviewed by police and 13 of them agreed to take part in Y&C interview. This follow up interview was 5 months later and the witnesses were accurate in their accounts with little change. The witnesses avoided leading questions and people who were most distressed had the most accurate recall. In real life cases, leading questions and anxiety do not affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony the same way they do in the lab.
Evaluation- (-) individual differences
Individual differences in how anxiety affects memory. Some people have better recall when anxious. Christiansen and Hubinette used 110 real eyewitnesses who had witnessed 22 bank robberies. Some were onlookers and some had been directly threatened by the robbers. It was found that victims were more accurate than onlookers in the description of the bank robber despite being in more of an anxious setting.
