Memory - Eyewitness Tesitmony & Anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
An unpleasant state of emotional arousal where the individual experiences worried thoughts & feelings & physical changes e.g. increased rate & sweatiness
Who did an experiment on anxiety has a negative effect on recall?
Johnson & Scott
What was the procedure of Johnson & Scott’s experiment?
Participants led to believe they going to take part in a lab study and sat in waiting room
Low anxiety condition -> arguement & man walks out with pen & grease on his hands
High anxiety condition -> arguement, broken glass & man walks out with a knife & covered in blood
What were the findings of the experiment by Johnson & Scott?
Participants picked out a man from a set of 50 photos
49% who saw man holding pen were able to identify him
33% could identify the man holding a knife
What is the weapon focus effect?
Where in violent crime arousal is focused on more central details of the attack, e.g. the weapon, than the more peripheral details e.g. the appearance of the perpetrator
Who did an experiment on anxiety has a positive effect on recall?
Yuille & Cutshall
What was the procedure of Yuille & Cutshall’s experiment?
natural experiment of real life shooting in a gun shop in Canada
21 witnesses (13 took part in study)
interviews held 4-5 months after incident & they were compared with original police interviews
accuracy determined by the number of details reported in each account & witnesses were also asked to report (using a 7 point scale) how scared they felt at the time & asked if they had any emotional problems
What were the findings of Yuille & Cutshall’s experiment?
witnesses were very accurate in their accounts & there was little change in the amount/accuracy after the 5 months (although some were less accurate e.g. weight estimation)
participants who recorded being the most stressed were the most accurate (88% stressed/ 75% non stressed)
