Eyewitness testimony: Anxiety

Eyewitness testimony: Anxiety

1. Evaluation

   • Field study’s lack control, more prone to extraneous variables E.G post event discussions

2. Case study’s

   • Johnson and Scott
     • Findings: the participants that witnessed the man holding a knife had poor recall due to their high anxiety levels
     • Procedure: Participants heard an argument whilst waiting in a waiting area, then witnessed a man walking through with either a knife (high anxiety condition) or a pen ( low anxiety condition.
   • Yuille and Cutshall
     • Procedure: interviews witnesses of a real life robbery
     • Findings: those participants who experienced the most stress had the most accurate recall 5 months later