Memory- Eye Witness Testimony Flashcards
What are 2 aspects of anxiety?
Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion caused by stressful situations.
Symptoms include physiological arousal.
Why might anxiety have a negative effect on recall?
The creation of physiological arousal ‘cause the body to not pay attention to important cues, and in turn recall is worse.
What does ‘weapon focus’ mean?
Looking at the effect or weapons on the accuracy of an eyewitness; because weapons cause fear and anxiety.
Explain the procedure findings and conclusions of Johnson and Scott (1976) study on the effects of anxiety on EWT.
Procedure participants were led to believe they were waiting to take part in a study. Whilst seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument in the next room.
In the low anxiety condition a man walked through the waiting area carrying a pen with grease on his hands.
In the high anxiety condition the argument was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass, and a man walked out of the room holding a paper knife that was covered in fake blood.
Findings: participants later had to pick out the man from a set of 50 photos 49% of the low-anxiety group condition correctly identified him.
33% of high-anxiety condition correctly identified him.
Conclusion: the tunnel theory theory of memory argues that a witness’ attention narrows to focus on a weapon because it is a source of anxiety.
Why might anxiety have a positive effect on recall?
It triggers physiological arousal in the body which triggers the fight or flight response and increases alertness, in turn improving accuracy of the eyewitness testimony.
Explain the procedure, findings and conclusion of Yuille & Cutshall’s (1968) study on the effects of anxiety on the EWT.
Procedure a real-life shooting
Explain the law Yerkes and Dodsons law and how it applies to anxiety?
Anxiety can have both a positive and negative effect on someone’s. Ability to accurately recall.
EWT: performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point, where it decreases rapidly.
What is the shape of this sort of relationship between 2 variables?
This is an example of the inverted ‘U’ theory.
