Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony - Anxiety
- Created by: SluggyK
- Created on: 17-11-16 19:36
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- Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony - Anxiety
- Negative Effects on Recall
- Creates physiological arousal which prevents us from paying attention to cues
- Johnson/ Scott sat participants in a waiting room
- They heard an argument then a man walked through either with a pen (low anxiety) or a bloody knife (high anxiety)
- Supports tunnel theory - witnesses focused on weapon as it was a source of anxiety
- From 50 photos the man was identified correctly by 49% of low anxiety participants and 33% of high anxiety
- Positive Effect on Recall
- Stress of a crime triggers fight/flight response which improves memory as we are more aware of situational cues
- Yuille/Cutshall studied a Canadian shooting, 13/21 witnesses took part
- Interviewed them 4-5 months after incident and compared with original police records
- Participants with highest stress levels = more accurate, 88% compared to 75%
- Explaining Contradictory Findings
- Yerkes/ Dodson found relationship similar to inverted U
- Lower anxiety produces lower recall accuracy
- Memory is more accurate with more anxiety until maximum accuracy
- More stress causes recall to decline
- Strong emotional/ physical effects
- Negative Effects on Recall
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