factors effecting eyewitness testimony: anxiety

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  • Created by: hope2003
  • Created on: 02-03-20 19:24
effects of anxiety
emotional or physical arousalL worried thoughts, feeling of tension, increased heart rate and tension
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anxiety negative effect on recall - procedure
physiological arousal prevents us paying attention - Johnson and scolt (1976) led participants to believe they were taking part in a lab study. in waiting room man came in with a pen (low anxiety) man came in with a knife (high anxiety).
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anxiety negative effect on recall - findings
49% can identify man with pen. 33% identify man with knife. tunnel theory of memory - narrow focus on weapon as its the source of anxiety
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anxiety positive effect on recall
physiological arousal prepares for fight or flight: more aware.
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anxiety positive effect on recall - procedure
Yuille and Cutsnall (1986) - real life shooting in Canada (owner shot a thief dead). 13 witnesses took part in interviews 4-5 months after the event compared with police interview. had to rate stress out of 7
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anxiety positive effect on recall - findings
little change in accuracy after 5 months. people reported highest levels of stress were most accurate (88% to 75%)
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explaining the contradictory findings
Yerkes&Dodson (1908)-relationship between emotional arousal-performance is an inverted U. Lower levels of anxiety=lower levels of accuracy.memory becomes more accurate as anxiety increases. opt anxiety= max recall.if more stress, recall decline
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main evaluation points of anxiety
weapon focus effect may not be relevant, field studies lack control, ethical issues, demand characteristics in lab, inverted u explanation is too simplistic
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evaluation of anxiety - weapon focus effect may not be relevant
test surprise rather than accuracy. Pickel (1998) conducted it using scissors, raw chicken and a wallet in a hairdressers. accuracy was poor in unusual condition - due to unusualness not anxiety
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evaluation of anxiety - field studies lack control
as not straight after event things may of occurred in mean time (post event discussion) - extraneous variables
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evaluation of anxiety - ethical issues
creating anxiety - psychological harm, deception. No ethical issues in real life study - cutsall
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evaluation of anxiety - demand characteristics in lab
staged crime - aware they are watching a film and know they will be asked questions
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evaluation of anxiety - inverted u explanation is too simplistic
anxiety is hard to define as there are many elements.g. cognitive, behavioural and physical. explanation only assumes physical.
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Card 2

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physiological arousal prevents us paying attention - Johnson and scolt (1976) led participants to believe they were taking part in a lab study. in waiting room man came in with a pen (low anxiety) man came in with a knife (high anxiety).

Back

anxiety negative effect on recall - procedure

Card 3

Front

49% can identify man with pen. 33% identify man with knife. tunnel theory of memory - narrow focus on weapon as its the source of anxiety

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

physiological arousal prepares for fight or flight: more aware.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Yuille and Cutsnall (1986) - real life shooting in Canada (owner shot a thief dead). 13 witnesses took part in interviews 4-5 months after the event compared with police interview. had to rate stress out of 7

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