Cognitive Psychology Memory Anxiety & Eye Witness Testimony

How good are you as an eye witness? To Start… How good are you as an eye witness? How good an eye witness are you?

To KNOW & UNDERSTAND what anxiety and weapon focus are. Lesson Objectives Thinking Ladder… To KNOW & UNDERSTAND what anxiety and weapon focus are. To UNDERSTAND how anxiety can affect EWT. To KNOW, UNDERSTAND & EVALUATE research into the effects of anxiety on EWT.

How will I know if I am learning? By the end of the lesson… Success Criteria How will I know if I am learning? By the end of the lesson… E Will be able to define weapon focus. C Will be able to explain how anxiety can affect EWT. A Will be able to fully describe and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Look at the following pictures…. Anxiety Look at the following pictures….

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

What were your eyes most drawn to? Anxiety What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this make you feel? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness?

What does being Anxious feel like….? Anxiety What does being Anxious feel like….? What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? “Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state where we fear that something bad is about to happen. People often become anxious when they are in stressful situations. This anxiety tends to be accompanied with physiological arousal (increased heart rate, shallow breathing). Due to this, much of the research in eye witness testimony is now focused on the effects of arousal.”

What does the research say? Anxiety What does the research say? What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? Deffenbacher et al 2004 meta-analysis which found that high levels of stress impacted on the accuracy of EWT. Christianson & Hubinette 1993 - Questioned real victims of a bank robbery. They found that those who had actually been threatened were more accurate in their recall, compared to those who were onlookers. This continued to be true 15 months later.

The weapon-focus effect Anxiety The weapon-focus effect “This is where in violent crimes, arousal may focus the witness on more central details of the attack (eg: weapon) than the more peripheral details (eg: what else was going on and what the perpetrator looked like).”

The weapon-focus effect Anxiety The weapon-focus effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_QbTX2qS10 Weapon Focus Incident What do they Remember? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVHWn3m2PDE

Anxiety has a negative effect on recall What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? Anxiety has a negative effect on recall

Anxiety has a negative effect on recall What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? Johnson and Scott (1976) - lab experiment. There were 2 conditions: In both conditions participants heard an argument in an adjoining room. In condition 1 a man emerged holding a pen with grease on his hands. In condition 2 the argument was more heated with the sound of breaking glass and a man emerged holding a paper knife covered in blood.

Anxiety has a negative effect on recall What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? Findings When asked to identify the man from 50 photos, participants in condition 1 were 49% accurate compared with 33% accuracy in condition 2. Conclusions This suggests that the weapon may have distracted attention from the man and might explain why eyewitnesses sometimes have poor recall for certain details of a crime. The tunnel theory suggests focus is narrowed to the weapon as it is a source of anxiety.

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall - real-life events

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall - real-life events What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? The fight-or-flight response increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event as we are more aware of the cues Yuille and Cutshall (1986) – shooting in Canada

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall - real-life events What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? Procedure: Interviewed 13 witnesses to real shooting 4-5 months after the event and compared to the police interviews. Store owner shot and recovered, thief shot dead. Some close, others far away. Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported. Rated stress on a 7-point scale. Asked if they had any emotional problems.

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall - real-life events What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? Findings: Accurate accounts several months later. Closest most accurate. Misleading questions had no effect. Most distressed provided most accurate 5 months later. Arousal enhanced accuracy. Highest rate of stress =most accurate (about 88% compared to 75%).

How can we explain these contrasting findings…? Anxiety How can we explain these contrasting findings…?

Explaining the Contradictory findings Anxiety Explaining the Contradictory findings What were your eyes most drawn to? How might this affect your performance as an eye witness? Yerkes-Dodson Law – ‘inverted U’. Low anxiety = low accuracy – the more anxiety the better the recall until an optimal point is reached. Then accuracy declines with further stress.

Evaluation: Weapon focus effect may not be relevant Johnson and Scott- may test surprise rather than anxiety. Participants may have focused on the weapon because they were surprised by what they were seeing rather than because they were scared. Weapon focus effect- due to unusualness rather than anxiety.

Evaluation: Field studies sometimes lack control Usually interview real life witnesses sometime after the event. Things will happen that researchers have no control over e.g. discussion with other people, what they may have seen in the media etc. Therefore extraneous variables may be involved.

Evaluation: The inverted- U explanation is too simplistic. Anxiety is very difficult to define and measure. Anxiety has many elements, cognitive, behavioral, emotional and physical. But the inverted U only looks at physical arousal.

killed. Crowds of people were watching, including Anxiety Your Task 2010 An American space shuttle exploded soon after it was launched. All of the astronauts on board were killed. Crowds of people were watching, including friends and relatives of the astronauts. Six months after the explosion, a student decided to investigate the accuracy of some of the eyewitnesses’ memory of this event. Explain how anxiety might have affected eyewitness testimony of this event. Refer to psychological research in your answer. (6 marks)

Anxiety Mark Scheme Candidates must refer to research where the anxiety component is clear.Candidates might refer to the Yerkes-Dodson law which suggests moderate anxiety is associated with better recall than very high or very low anxiety. In this case friends and relatives might show worse recall than other people in the crowd. Laboratory based research has generally shown impaired recall in high anxiety conditions. Loftus’ (1979) weapon focuss, Loftus and Burns (1982). However, in a real life study Yuille and Cutshill (1986) found witnesses who had been most distressed at the time of a shooting gave the most accurate account five months later. Also Christianson and Hubinette (1993) found victims of genuine bank robberies were more accurate in their recall than bystanders. There is a range of acceptable answers to this question and marks should be given for effective use of the material. Answers which do not make explicit reference to this event should be awarded a maximum of 4 marks.

Passing Notes… To Finish… In your teams your aim is to get a complete set of correct notes without looking at your textbook or workbook and without consulting each other. Decide on an order in which each team member will have a turn. The first team member starts with the paper and writes down the first required note. They fold over their answer and pass the note to the next nominated team mate. They write down the next note and fold theirs over and pass it on…. Etc.

Passing Notes… To Finish… Player 1: Write down the name(s) of psychologist(s) who found that anxiety had a positive effect on EWT. Player 2 : Write down the name(s) of psychologist(s) who found that anxiety had a negative effect on EWT. Player 3: Write down the name of the law which explains differences in the effect of anxiety on EWT. Player 4: Explain the Yerkes Dodson Law. Player 5: Draw a sketch of the Yerkes Dodson Graph. Player 6: Write down one evaluation of research into anxiety and EWT.