anxiety + eye witness Flashcards
outline what it meant by anxiety
a state of emotional and physical arousal
- that emotions include having very worrisome thoughts or feelings of tension
- physical changes can include an increased heart rate sweatiness
- This can affect the accuracy and detail of eyewitness testimony
what study shows anxiety has a negative effect on record
Johnson and Scott
procedure of Johnson and Scott
- let participant to believe they are going to take part in a lab study
- they were seated in a waiting room and the participant heard argument in the next room
- in the ‘low anxiety’ condition, A man walked to the waiting area carrying a pen with grease on his hands
- Other participants overheard the same argument but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass
- A man walked out of the room holding a paper knife that was covered in blood, this was the ‘high anxiety’ condition
findings
-Participants had to pick out the man from a set of 50 photos, 49% of participants had seen man carrying the pen were able to identify him, participants who had seen the man holding the blood covered knife was just 33%
What is the tunnel theory
Argues that a witnesses attention narrows to the focus on the weapon because it is a source of anxiety
What type of effect did this study demonstrates
Weapon focus effect
what is Yerkes-Dodson law
- Lower levels of anxiety produce lower levels of recall accuracy
- But memory becomes more accurate as the level of anxiety experienced increases
weakness of Johnson and Scott
- may test SURPRISE rather than anxiety, Participants may have focused on the weapon because they were surprised rather than being scared
- This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety or threat
another weakness of Johnson And scott
There was also ethical issues such as participants may have been experiencing psychological harm
factors of eyewitness testimony
anxiety, leading questions and post event discussion
