Lesson 11: Anxiety and Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
What is anxiety, and how does it relate to eye witness testimony’s?
Anxiety is a state of apprehension, uncertainty and fear resulting from a threatening situation. When high, can impair psychological and physical functioning. Several psychologists say it can prevent accurate and detailed recall of a crime. Presence of weapon increases anxiety and can impair recall.
People who witness a violet crime can remember the criminals weapon in great detail, but not the criminal- WEAPON FOCUS EFFECT.
Loftus anxiety experiment
Wanted to see whether anxiety affected ability to recognise the perpetrator of a crime.
In the experimental condition- arranged pps to overhear a hostile argument between two people as well as sounds of furniture being rattled and broken glass. Then, a man emerged with a letter opener covered in blood.
In control condition- pps overheard a conversation between two people about lab equipment failure before a man with grease all over his hands emerged carrying a pen.
Pps then asked to identify the person they had just seen from 50 photos. 33% recognised from bloody letter opener whereas 49% for the pen. Loftus said it was because the people in former condition had focused on the weapon rather than the person.
Positive of Loftus anxiety study
It is supported by other research studies. Loftus & Burns allocated pps into one of two conditions. One group watched a violent short film where a boy was headshotted. Other group watched a nonviolent video of a crime. Pps were less accurate in recall for the violent movie.
Negatives of Loftus anxiety study
Lacks ecological validity. Although they were outside of laboratory waiting, they may have anticipated something was going to happen, which could have impaired judgement accuracy and the validity of the study.
Violated numerous ethical guidelines. Pps deceived about the nature of the experiment and were not protected from psychological harm. Pps exposed to a man who they were led to believe just killed someone, holding a bloodied knife, which could have caused them extreme distress.
There are individual differences in how anxiety affects memory. Some people have better recall when anxious. Christianson and Hubinette conducted a research study using 58 real life witnesses who had witnessed bank robberies. Some were onlookers and some were bank clerks directly threatened by robbers. It was found that victims were more accurate than onlookers in their description of bank robbers suggesting high anxiety enhanced recall.
Yuille and Cutshall found witnesses who had been most distressed at a time of a real life shooting in Canada gave the most accurate account five months later suggesting high anxiety aids recall.
