Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Evaluation into anxiety affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony -…
Evaluation into anxiety affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
Artificial evidence
The low ecological validity suggests that Loftus' research cannot be applied outside of a lab so the findings should be generalised with caution
Johnson and Scott found that recall is lowered when participants are in a highly stressful situation due to the weapon focus efffect
In real-life a witness would have high levels of anxiety and this could have an affect on their recall
Problematic as it does not replicate how a witness would feel in a real-life scenario
Laboratory experiments which use artificial film clips and staged situations
However...
Contradicts the findings of Loftus' lab studies and suggests that high anxiety levels help EWT accuracy
High in face validity
They examined 22 genuine bank robberies and found that people who were directly threatened remembered more about aspects of the scene and the perpetrators face than bystanders who were not directly threatened
Christiansson and Hubinette carried out research in a natural experiment to see if anxiety affects EWT in the real world
There is evidence that contradicts the weapon focus effect and use of lab studies in this field
Contradictory theories
Pickel (1998) showed that surprise might be the cause of poor recall rather than anxiety
It is suggested that surprise rather than anxiety may be the cause
In a study participants observed a thief entering a hair salon carrying either a pair of scissors (low surprise, high threat); a wallet(low surprise, low threat); or a whole raw chicken(high surprise, low threat)
Anxiety may not be the cause of inaccurate recall in EWT
Identification of the thief was poorest in the raw chicken condition
This shows that surprise was a factor for poor EWT rather than a threat/anxiety
Conclusion point
When anxiety is medium, memory performance is optimum
He used Yerkes-Dodson effect to explain- when arousal/anxiety is high performance on tasks such as memory is low
So this supports Yerkes-Dodson effect in relation to accuracy of EWT
He said it depends on the levels of anxiety that were created in the study
He found 10 supported the idea that anxiety affects EWT, the other 11 did not
Deffenbacher reviewed 21 studies into the effects of anxiety on EWT
Individual differences
Tomes and Katz (1997) suggested that people who are adversely affected tended to be: more empathetic and have stronger vivid memory in tests
Influence the accuracy of EWT in potentially worrying situations
Not all people may respond the same in a given situation so individual differences may play a role