Memory-amxiety Flashcards
Key study: Johnson and Scott (1976)
What is the weapon focus effect?
Procedure-
Ppts say in waiting room
Argument heard
Man then saw run through the room
(What were they two items either saw held? 🖊🔪)
Ppts later asked to asked to identify man from a set of photographs
View that a weapon in a criminals hand distracts the attention from other features reducing accuracy
🖊Pen covered in grease (low anxiety condition)
Or
🔪Knife covered in blood (weapon-focus condition)
Findings:
Mean accuracy of pen and knife condition?
What did Loftus (1987) discover? 👀
🖊=49%
🔪=33%
Weapon caused attention to be physically drawn towards the weapon itself shown by eye-Movements
Anxiety’s positive effect on accuracy-
Alternative argument
High anxiety= more enduring and accurate memories
Christiansen and hubinette (1993) found evidence of enhanced recall when questioning 58 real whiteness to a bank robbery in Sweden
How long after robbery were interviews conducted?
Accuracy of recall?
Who had best recall?
4-15 months after
Over 75%
Most anxious witnesses
Evaluation-
Pickel 1998- proposed reduced accuracy due to weapon focus effect is due to surprise rather than anxiety
Ppts enter ✂️💈 salon either holding…
Where was identification least accurate?
Shows weapon effect to be linked to surprise 💥
Scissors ✂️ (high threat/low surprise)
Whole Chicken 🍗 (low threat/high surprise)
Hand gun 🔫 (high threat/high surprise)
Wallet 💷 (low threat/low surprise)
High surprise conditions
Evaluation-
Real life versus lab study’s
Strength of Christenson and Hubinette study?
What did Deffenbatcher (2004) find that opposed C & H findings looking at studies?
Study of anxiety in the context of a real crime
Lab studies in general demonstrated that anxiety led to reduced Accuracy while real-life studies are associate with even greater loss of accuracy
