Valentine and Mesout (2009) Criminal contemporary study

The aim of the experiment was to test the prediction deserived from the catastrophe model that in a situation which induces cognititve anxiety, and high physiologocial effects can cause a marked impairment in eyewitness recall and identification.

The experiment was designed to test eyewitness memory in a situation that posed some personal threat, but occurs during the normal course of everyday life, without the participants being aware that eyewitness memory would be subsequently tested

Participants in the main part of the experiment had agreed to fill in some questionnaires about their visit but had not given informed consent to participate in the experiment. Each had visited the Labyrinth in exactly the same manner as described above for the participants in the validation study. Each participant was pointed out to the actor in the Labyrinth to ensure that she or he encountered the scary person whilst walking slowly around the labyrinth for approximately 7 minutes. About 45 minutes later, after they had completed their tour visiting the other exhibits in the same fixed order, the purpose of the experiment was explained and informed consent was obtained. It was explained that the participant was free to withdraw at this or any other point without having to give a reason. The participants who gave consent completed the SAI, and were instructed to circle the response which best described “how you felt when you were in the labyrinth”. They then completed the TAI, for which they were instructed to read each statement and to circle the response which best described “how you generally feel”. Then they completed a questionnaire on their memory for the ‘scary person’. First they were asked to provide a written free recall of the description of the scary person. Then they were prompted to provide a cued recall. In both recall tasks participants were instructed to include only those details they could actually remember and try not to guess any details they were unsure of. Finally participants were shown a nine person photograph lineup. All pictures were shown simultaneously in two rows (one with 4 pictures and one with 5 pictures). 

How was HR measured? What was form TAI? What was the SAI?

Heart rate was measured using a Polax Accurex Plus wireless heart rate monitor.

State and Trait anxiety was measured using the Spielberger (1983) StateTrait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y). The state anxiety inventory (SAI) consists of 20 items.

Each statement was altered to be worded in the past tense. For example “I was tense”, “I felt frightened”. Each statement was rated on a four point scale (not at all, somewhat, moderately so, very much so). A score between 1 and 4 was assigned for each item.

The trait anxiety inventory (TAI) consisted of 20 statements relating to how one usually feels, such as “I feel nervous and restless”, “I have disturbing thoughts”, “I feel inadequate”.

Each statement was rated on a four point scale (almost never, sometimes, often, almost always) and assigned a score between 1 and 4. A questionnaire was designed to record free recall and cued recall of the scary person encountered in the Labyrinth. 

The mean state anxiety score was  49.0. State enxiety score was higher in females than in males, a score of 52.8 for females, and 45.3 for males. 

Mean Trait anxiety score was 36.8.

Participants who reported lower state anxiety recalled more correct descriptors of the appearance of the actor

Only 17% of those who scored about the median on the state anxiety scale ( a score of 52 or above) correctly identified the actor from the 9 photo line up. In contrast, 75% of the eyewitnesses who scored below the median correctly identified the actor from the photo line up. Those reporting higher state anxiety were less likely to correctly identify the actor

Generalisability for this study may be low. The participants used may have a preference for scary events/ Activities as they were recruited by london dungeon. This limits the representativeness of the findings as their reactions to the scary stimuli may not be the same as those who do not choose to visit such enviroments

Reliability for this study may be low. It took place in london dungeons, meaning it is probbably classed as a field experiment. Therefore it is very difficult to maintain a strict control of extranious variables, meaning it would be very difficult to repeat and obtain the same/ similar results.

BUT... it may be high as they did manage to have some strict controls set in place, for example how long the participants walked around the dungeon for

Application - The findings of this study can be used in the field of eyewitness testimonys to highlight that under highly stressful situations, the innacuracy of recall may increase, this can be used in court cases to defend someone

Validity- The study is high in ecological validity as it took place in london dungeons, a place that many people may visit on a normal basis,meaning it is much more difficult for participants to work out the aim of the study and then have demand characterisitcs following guessing the aim

Validity - High. The researchers undertook an aditional process of validating the questionairres to make sure they were a good measure of anxiety. This provides assurance that the measures of anxiety were not measuring information about other emotions when completing the questionairre

Validity- High. Researchers gathered a baseline mesaure for each participant by obtaining information on trait anxiety to then compare to state anxiety. Thus taking into account individual differences

Ethics - Researchers did gain informed consent from the participants, but only following the walk around the maze did they do so, making the ehtics of the study simply questionable