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effects of anxiety on eye witness testimonies
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notes for topic of memory aqa a level psych
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Factors affecting accuracy of eyewitness testimony: anxiety.Anxiety has a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)
Creates physical arousal in the body preventing us paying attention to important cues, so recall
is worse.
Johnson & Scott (1976)
- Participants believed they were taking part in a lab study.
- 2 conditions, one which created anxiety and one which didn’t.
Condition 1 (low anxiety): heard a casual conversation in the next room and saw a man
walk past with a pen and grease on his hands.
Condition 2 (high anxiety): overheard a heated argument, sound of breaking glass. Man
walked out the room holding a bloody knife.
- Were told to identify the man from 50 photos.
Condition 1: 49% where able to identify the man.
Condition 2: 33% where able to identify the man.
- Tunnel theory of memory argues people have enhanced memory for central events e.g.,
weapon focus because of anxiety.
Anxiety has a positive effect on recall.
Fight or flight response is triggered increasing alertness, may improve memory for the event as
we become more aware of cues in the situation.
Yuille & Cutshall (1986)
- 21 witnesses (13 took part in study) of an actual shooting in a gun shop in Canada (shop
owner shot a thief dead)
- Interviewed 4-5 months after incident and interviews were compared with original
police interviews at the time of shooting.
- Accuracy was determined by number of details.
- Witnesses were asked how stressed they felt at the time and whether they have
emotional problems since.
Findings and conclusion
- High accuracy and little change in amount recalled after 5 months (some details less
accurate)
- Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (around 88%
compared to less stressed group 75%)
- Suggests anxiety doesn’t have a detrimental effect on accuracy of eyewitness memory in
real world context and may even enhance it.
- Supports the idea heightened anxiety draws our attention to external cues through ‘fight
or flight’ response, where such attention may have given us an evolutionarily advantage
by increasing our chances of escaping and survival.
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