eyewitness testimony- anxiety Flashcards
(7 cards)
anxiety decreases recall
High levels of anxiety can reduce the accuracy of recalling criminal faces, often due to the weapon focus effect. This is where attention is drawn to a weapon, which is anxiety-inducing, and distracts from other important details like facial features.
anxiety increases recall
A moderate state of arousal can enhance alertness and focus, making individuals more aware of their surroundings. Strong emotions may improve the encoding of details, leading to more accurate eyewitness testimony.
johnson and scott- weapon focus study
ppts saw a man holding either a gun or a pen and were later asked to identify him. those who saw the gun had 33% recall compared to 49% for pen.
= weapon captures attention, impairing memory for other details.
yuille and cutshall- contradicting study
In a real-life shooting study, witnesses showed highly accurate recall even after 5 months, and misleading questions had little effect on their answers = eyewitness memory can be reliable in real-world situations and that anxiety may not always impair recall.
strengths- real life application
the influence of schemas and memory distortion led to the development of Cognitive Interviews. These techniques use structured methods like varied recall and perspective-taking to improve accuracy, making them valuable tools in real life police investigations
weakness- demand characteristics
Lab based eyewitness studies may suffer from response bias, as participants might try to help the researcher by giving answers they think are expected. This lowers the validity of the findings, as responses may not reflect genuine memory recall.
weakness- ethical considerations
Johnson and Scott’s study broke ethical guidelines by exposing participants to unexpected anxiety-inducing situations without proper informed consent. This lack of protection from harm could have caused unnecessary distress, raising concerns about the ethical treatment of participants.
