Anxiety and Eye-Witness Testimony

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Anxiety and Eyewitness Testimony

Deffenbacher

meta-analysis

21 studies

high levels of anxiety (arousal) negetively affected the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

EVALUATION

Lacks ecological validity

High in generalisability because large sample

NEGATIVELY AFFECTS THE ACCURACY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY

POSITIVELY AFFECTS THE ACCURACY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY

Christianson and Hubinette

58 witnesses to a REAL bank robbery

high levels of anxety positively affected the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

even 15 months after robbery they could still accurately recall details

EVALUATION

High in ecological validity

Lower in generalisability because sample is quite small

Yerkes-Dodson Law

curvilinear

small amounts and very high levels of anxiety decrease the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

but moderate level increases and achieves maximum recall

quantitative data

Loftus

Weapon Focus

Lab experiment

university students

two conditions: one experienced intruder with grease on his hands and a pen, other same intruder but with blood and a penknife

participants asked to identify intruder from 50 photographs

1st condition- 49% accurate, 2nd condition 33% accurate

high levels of stress would have occurred in 2nd condition, showing that stress decreases accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Fisher

Repression

child rape victims

memories repressed/forgotten to prevent painful memories affecting conscious memory

defence mechanism

very inaccurate memories of what happened as they cannot remember what happened

high levels of anxiety negatively affect eyewitness testimony

Notes