Anxiety: EWT

Question 1

How does anxiety affect memory?

Answer 1

Research shows that anxiety (and feelings of stress) can have negative impact/effect on memory performance

Question 2

What is the weapon focus effect?

Answer 2

When a witness to a crime diverts their attention to the weapon, leading to memory impairments later for other details of the event

Question 3

What was Johnson and Scott experiment? (Aim and procedure)

Answer 3

• Investigate whether anxiety affects the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and facial recognition
• In the weapon condition (high anxiety), ppts overheard a heated exchange and the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs, After a man ran past holding a bloodied letter opener/ bloodied knife
• In the no weapon condition (low anxiety), ppts overheard a conversation about the equipment failure in a nearby room. After a man walked past the ppt holding a greasy pen
• Both groups were then shown 50 photographs and asked to identify the person who had left the laboratory

Question 4

What was the findings and conclusions of John and Scott’s experiment?

Answer 4

• Those in the ‘no-weapon’ condition correctly identified the target 49% of the time,
• ‘weapon’ condition, who correctly identified 33% of the time
• Concluded ppts who were exposed to the knife had higher levels of anxiety and were more likely to focus their attention on the weapon and not the face
• Therefore, the anxiety associated with seeing the knife reduces the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Question 5

What is a positive of John and Scott’s experiment?

Answer 5

• field experiment
• high in mundane realism
• findings; high in ecological validity

Question 6

Who supports the positive effect of anxiety?

Answer 6

Christanson and Hubinette

Question 7

What was Christianson and Hubinette’s study?

Answer 7

• Conducted research using 58 real life eyewitnesses who witnessed bank robberies in Sweden
• Some were bank clerks (victims) and some were bystanders who had been directly threatened by the robber
• Found that victims were more accurate in recalling than bystanders
• Demonstrates that anxiety did not make recall inaccurate and in some cases made recall more accurate
• Their recall lasted to even up to 15 months

Question 8

A03 - Challenge to the weapon focus effect (Pickel)

Answer 8

• Pickel proposed that reduced accuracy of identification could be due to surprise rather an anxiety
• To test this, she arranged for ppts to watch a thief enter a salon carrying scissors (high threat, low surprise), hand gun (high threat, high surprise) wallet (low threat, low surprise) and raw chicken (low threat, high surprise)
• She found that identification was least accurate in high surprise conditions than high threat
• Supports that the weapon focus effect is linked to surprise rather than anxiety

Question 9

A03 - Christanson and Hubinette’s study was a study of anxiety in context of real crime

Answer 9

• It could be that lab studies do not replicate the real levels of anxiety experienced by real eyewitness during an actual crime
• However, Deffenbacher et al supports this but found, from a review of 34 studies, that lab studies in general demonstrate that anxiety leads to reduced accuracy and that real life studies associated with even greater loss of accuracy
• This suggests that lab studies are valid, as they are supported by real life studies

Question 10

A03 - Violence of crime can affect accuracy of recall

Answer 10

• critics of the weapon focus effect argue that violence of a crime may affect accuracy of recall
• Christanson and Hubinette study concerned a violent real life crime
• Other studies of anxiety and accuracy of identification did not involve violence
• Halford and Milne found victims of violent crimes were more accurate in recall than victims of non-violent crime
• This shows that there is no simple rule on the affect of anxiety on accuracy of eyewitness testimonies