Anxiety and Eye-Witness Testimony

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

LoftusWeapon 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

FisherRepression 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

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