High quality and detailed notes on factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony - anxiety. Describes both the positive and negative effect on recall and also provides 4 extensive evaluation paragraphs with case study evidence included. Perfect for any 8 or 16 mark essay.
Psychology – Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Anxiety
Anxiety – a state of emotional and physical arousal.
Anxiety has a negative effect on recall (weapon focus):
Craig Johnson and William Scott carried out a study on unsuspecting participants,
waiting for a, ‘lab study’.
Whilst waiting, participants overheard an argument in the next room:
Condition 1 – Low anxiety – saw a man leaving carrying a pen covered in grease.
Condition 2 – High anxiety – saw a man leaving with a paper knife covered in
blood and heard breaking glass during the argument.
The participants were then shown 50 photos and asked to identify the man.
Findings and conclusions:
Condition 1 (pen) – 49% picked the man accurately.
Condition 2 (knife) – 33% picked the man accurately.
This is due to the tunnel theory of memory. When a weapon is involved the
witnesses focus on this as the central cause of anxiety and other key features are
forgotten.
Anxiety has a positive effect on recall:
Procedure – John Yuille and Judith Cutshall conducted a study on a real-life shooting in a
gun shop in Canada.
The shop owner shot a thief dead.
There were 21 witnesses and 13 agreed to take part in the study.
They were interviewed 4-5 months after the crime and these interviews were
compared to the original police ones.
Accuracy and stress were measured. Accuracy was measured by the number of
details reported in each account and stress was rated on a scale from 1-7 at the
time of the crime.
The witnesses were also asked whether they had had any emotional problems
e.g. sleeplessness since the crime.
Findings and Conclusions -
The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts after 4-5 months and little change
was made from the original police ones.
Some details such as colour of items, age, height and weight estimates were less
accurate.
Participants who reported highest stress levels were more accurate (88%) than the
control group (75%).
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