Eyewitness Testimonies - Anxiety

Anxiety has strong emotional and physical effects. There is evidence to show it can have both positive and negative effects on recall.

Negative effects of anxiety on recall:

Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues so recall is worse. This is shown in Johnson & Scott's experiment (see memory experiments)

Positive effects of anxiety on recall:

The stress of witnessing a crime/accident…