eyewitness testimony- anxiety affecting the accuracy of it Flashcards
anxiety and its affect on eyewitness recall
a state of emotional and physical arousal (e.g. worried thoughts and an increased heart rate).
unclear if it makes eyewitness recall better or worse so there is research to support both possibilities.
anxiety has a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)
anxiety creates psychological arousal in the body which prevents us praying paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse
what did Johnson and Scott do research into on anxiety’s negative effect on recall
research into the effect of the presence of a weapon which creates anxiety, which leads to a focus on the weapon. This reduces a witness’s recall of other details of an event.
procedure of Johnson and Scott’s research into anxiety’s negative effect on recall
-Participants believed they were going to take part in a lab study but while seated in the waiting room they were taking part instead (deception).
-There was one waiting room as a low-anxiety condition which participants heard a casual conversation in the next room and then saw a man walk past them carrying a pen with grease on his hands.
-Other participants in the high-anxiety room, heard a heated argument accompanied with the sound of breaking glass and then a man walked out the room holding a knife in blood.
finding of Johnson and Scott’s research into anxiety’s negative effect on recall
when participants were later asked to pick out the man from a set of 50 photos, 49% who saw the pen man were able to identify him and the corresponding figure was 33% (for the participants in the high-anxiety room identified the knife man).
what is the tunnel theory of memory and how does it support the findings of Johnson and Scott’s research
-It is how anxiety narrows your attention onto one aspect of a scene so you can’t recall much else.
-The tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events so weapon focus as a result of anxiety can affect this.
one limitation of Johnson and Scott’s study (evaluation for negative effects)
-One limitation of their study may not of tested anxiety because the reason participants focused on the weapon may be because they were surprised at what they saw rather than scared.
-Pickel conducted an experiment in which participants watched a hairdressing video but containing one of the items: scissors, a wallet, a handgun or a raw chicken. The scissors were high anxiety and low unusualness and it was found that eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions (chicken and handgun).
-This suggest that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat, therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on the EWT.
one strength of Johnson and Scott’s study (evaluation for negative effects)
-one strength is evidence supporting the view that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of recall.
-Valentine and Mesouts study supports the research on weapon focus (Johnson and Scott) finding negative effects on recall. The researchers used heartrate to divide the participants into low and high anxiety groups. In this study anxiety clearly disputed participants ability to recall details about the actor in the London Dungeons Labyrinth.
-This suggests that a high level of anxiety does have a negative effect on the immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event.
anxiety has a positive effect on recall (fight or flight response)
witnessing a stressful event creates anxiety through psychological arousal within the body. This fight of flight response is triggered which increases alertness. This may improve memory for the event as we become more aware of cues in the situation.
what did Yuille and Custshall do as their study into the positive effect of anxiety on recall
Conducted a study on an actual shooting in a gun shop in Canada, to explore the fight or flight response in increasing alertness to improve memory.
procedure of Yuille and Custshall’s study into the positive effect of anxiety on recall
-21 witnesses saw the shop owner shoot a thief and 13 took part in the study.
-4 to 5 months after the incident interviews were compared with the original police interviews at the time of the shooting.
-accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account,
-participants asked to rate their stress level and emotional problems since the event (e.g. sleeplessness) on a 7-point scale.
findings and conclussion of Yuille and Custshall’s study into the positive effect of anxiety on recall
-witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in amount recalled/ accuracy after 5 months. Though some details were less accurate, such as recollection of age and height.
-Participants who reported highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% in less stressed group).
-This suggests that anxiety doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitness memory in real-world context and may even enhance it.
one strength of anxiety having a positive effect on recall (evaluation)
-one strength is evidence showing anxiety having positive effects on accuracy of recall.
-Christianson and Hubinette interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robbers in Sweden. Some of the witnesses were directly involved (e.g. bank workers) and some were indirectly involved (e.g. bystanders). Researchers assumed that those directly involved would experience most anxiety.
- In their study recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses and even more accurate for direct victims (most anxious).
- These findings from actual crimes confirm that anxiety doesn’t reduce accuracy of recall to eyewitnesses and may even enhance it, which Yuille and Cutshall also suggested.
one limitation of anxiety having a positive effect on recall (evaluation)
-One limitation is due to Christianson and Hubinette interviewing their participants several months after the vent (4-15 months).
-Therefore, the researchers had no control over what happened to participants in the interviewing time (e.g. post event discussion) and so effects of anxiety may have been overwhelmed by other factors which was impossible to assess by the time participants were interviewed.
-This shows that it is possible that a lack of control over co-founding variables may have been responsible for these findings, which invalidates their support.
What was the inverted U theory by Yerkes and Dodson
shows the relationship between emotional arousal and performance. It states that performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point where it decreases drastically.
