Eyewitess Testimony: Anxitey Flashcards
(6 cards)
Anxiety has a negative effect on recall study
Particpants where exposed to one of 2 situations:
1. They over heard a normal conversation about equipment failure, and then a person emerged holding a pen with grease on his hands
2. They overheard a heated argument, followed by the sound of smashing glass, then a person emerged holding a bloody knife
Particpants were then given 50 photographs and asked to identify the man they saw who had came out of the room
Group one could correctly identity the man 49% of the time
Group two could correctly identify the man 33% of the time.
Suggesting that anxiety decreases EWT
Strength evaluation of anxiety negatively affecting EWT
P- supporting research
E- psychologists conducted a study were they split their participants into 2 groups and got them to watch 2 different clips. One clip was a non violent clip and the other clip had a young boy getting shot. When asked to identify the person in the video, the group with the non violent clip had more accuracy
E-increase validity
Limitaion evaluation of anxiety negatively affecting EWT
P-lack internal validity
E- because the participants may have focuses on the weapon because of them being surprised at what they saw, rather then having anxiety. This was shown when they got hairdressers to hold items in their salon such as scissors, raw chicken and a wallet. EWT testomney was significantly lower when they held the raw chicken, although scissors are a weapon, it isn’t unusual
E- weapon focus could be due to unusualness rather then anxiety
Anxiety having a positive effect on recall
Whitenesses were asked how stressed they felt after seeing the event of a real life crime (shooting) measured on a 7 point scale. They were also asked about emotional problems such a lack of sleep. People who were the most stressed were the most accurate about the shooting 4-5 months after. (Around 88% accuracy for higher stress levels compared to 75% accuracy for not as stressed). Showing that anxiety does have a positive effect on recall.
Strength evaluation of anxiety having a positive effect on EWT
P- supporting research
E- a psychologist actually interviewed whitenesses from a bank robbery, some where directly witnessing (high anxiety) others were bystanders (low anxiety). Results showed that those who showed higher levels of anxiety were more accurate when describing the event
E- anxiety can enhance EWT
Limitation evaluation of anxiety having a effect on EWT
P- There has been problems rose from the inverted-U-theory
E- this is because it only focuses on physical anxiety and ignored other elements such as cognitive (how we think about the event)
E-too simplistic to be used , as anxious through to might not always lead to anxiety
