Memory - anxiety (eyewitness testimony) Flashcards
What is anxiety
A state of emotional and physical arousal
Who did the study that anxiety has a negative effect?
Johnson and Scott
What is the procedure for anxiety has a negative effect study?
Participants sat in a waiting room believing they were going to take part in a lab study
-Low anxiety condition - participants heard a casual conversation and then saw a man walk through the waiting room carrying a pen with grease on his hands
-High anxiety condition - a heated argument was accompained by the sound of breaking glass. A man then walked through the room holding a knife covered in blood (creates anxiety and ‘weapon focus’
Participants were later asked to pick the man from a set of 50 photographs
What were the findings and conclusions for anxiety has a negative effect study?
49% of participants in the low anxiety condition and 33% of high anxiety participants were able to identify the man
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
Who did the study that anxiety has a positive effect?
Yuille and Cutshall
What is the procedure for anxiety has a positive effect study?
In an actual crime a gun shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate in the study
Participants were interviwed 4-5 months after the incident. The information recalled was compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting
Witnesses rate how stressful they felt at the time of the incident
What were the findings and conclusions for anxiety has a positive effect study?
Witnesses were very accurate in what they recalled and there was little change after 5 months. Some details were less accurate e.g age/weight/height
Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate
Anxiety does not appear to reduced the accuracy of EWT for a real-world event and may even enhance it
Explaining contradictory findings:
Inverted U theory
Yerkes and Dodsonargue that the relationship between performance and arousal/stress is an inverted U
Explaining contradictotry findings
Affects memory
Deffenbacher reviwed 21 studies of EWT with contradictory findings on the effects of anxiety on recall
He suggested the Yerkes Dodson effect could explain both low and high levels of anxiety produce poor recall whereas optimum levels can lead to very good recall
What are two strengths?
Supporting evidence for negative effects
Supporting evidence for positive effects
One strength is supporting evidence for negative effects…
- 2 new names
Valentine and Mesout used heart rate to divide visitors to the London Dungeon’s Labyrinth into low and high anxiety groups
High anxiety participants were less accurate than low anxiety anxiety in describing and indentifying a target person
This supportes the claim that anxiety has a negative effect on immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event
One strength is supporting evidence for positive effects
-2 new names
Christianson and Hubinette interviewed actual witnesses to bank robberies - some were direct victims (high anxiety) and others were bystander (less anxiety)
They found more than 75% accurate recall across all witnesses. Direct victims were even more accurate
This suggests that anxiety does not affect accuracy of eyewitness recall and may even enhance it
Counterpoint - Chirstianson and Hubinette interviwed wittness long after the event. Many thing happened that the researchers could….
not control e.g post event discussion
Therefore lack of control over confounding variable may be responsible for the incaccuracy of recall, not anxiety
What is a limitation?
Anxiety may not be relevant to weapon focus
One limiation is that anxiety may not be relevant to weapon focus…
- new name
Joshson and Scott participants may have focused on the weapon not because they were anxious but because they were surprised
Pickel found accuracy in identifying the criminal was the poorest when the object in their hand was unexpected
This suggests the weapons effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat and so tells us nothing about the specific effects of anxiety recall
