Eye witness testimony - Effects of Anxiety
- Created by: Datman 1331
- Created on: 06-02-20 14:25
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- Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Anxiety
- Anxiety: a state of emotional and physical arousal
- Emotional- worried thoughts or feelings
- Physical- increased heart rate, sweat
- is a normal reaction but can affect the accuracy and detail of EWT
- unsure if it is positive or negative
- Anxiety is negative
- anxiety stops us from paying attention to important cues so recall is worse
- Johnson & Scott (1976)
- people sit in a waiting room with a row going on next door
- Low anxiety- man leaves with a pen and grease on his hands- this acts as a control
- people picked out the man from 50 photos
- low anxiety= 49% high anxiety= 33%
- shows tunnel theory: EW focus' on the weapon instead of the rest of a crime scene
- low anxiety= 49% high anxiety= 33%
- people picked out the man from 50 photos
- high anxiety- people hear braking glass and a man leaves with a paper knife and blood on his hands
- people picked out the man from 50 photos
- low anxiety= 49% high anxiety= 33%
- shows tunnel theory: EW focus' on the weapon instead of the rest of a crime scene
- low anxiety= 49% high anxiety= 33%
- people picked out the man from 50 photos
- Low anxiety- man leaves with a pen and grease on his hands- this acts as a control
- people sit in a waiting room with a row going on next door
- Anxiety is positive
- the stress triggers the fight of flight response, becoming more alert and aware of situational cues
- Yuille & Cutshall (1986)
- 13 witnesses to a real crime (shop owner shot a thief)
- interviewed 5 months later ( which were compared with origional police statements
- also asked about how stressed they were at the time and if they had any emotional problems since
- the accuracy despite the time gap was very good.
- people that said they were the most stressed were more accurate (88% vs 75%)
- the accuracy despite the time gap was very good.
- also asked about how stressed they were at the time and if they had any emotional problems since
- interviewed 5 months later ( which were compared with origional police statements
- 13 witnesses to a real crime (shop owner shot a thief)
- Reason for contradictory findings
- Deffenbacher (1983) aplied Yerkes-Dodson Law
- lower levels of anxiety produce lower levels of recall
- the accuracy increases as the anxiety increases
- after a certain point the recall decreases
- too much stress wont help recall
- after a certain point the recall decreases
- the accuracy increases as the anxiety increases
- lower levels of anxiety produce lower levels of recall
- Deffenbacher (1983) aplied Yerkes-Dodson Law
- Anxiety: a state of emotional and physical arousal
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