A03

• What are the strengths of the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony?

  1. Support from real life studies
• What are the limitations of the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony?

  1. Weapon focus effect may not be caused by anxiety
  2. Demand characteristics in lab studies
  3. Problems with Yerkes-Dodson law
• Strength = support from real life studies

  • There is evidence of the positive effects of anxiety on EWT accuracy from real life cases
  • Christianson and Hubinette (1993) and Yuille and Cutshall (1986) both carried out studies in the context of real life crime
  • These both provide positive effects of anxiety with high ecological validity
  • HOWEVER - studies have lower internal validity
  • In the months following the crime witnesses could have had experiences affecting their recall e.g. accounts they have read in the media
• Limitation = weapon focus effect may not be caused by anxiety

  • It has been argued that participants may focus on the weapon due to surprise rather than because they are scared
  • Pickel (1998) arranged participants to watch a thief enter a hairdressing salon carrying scissors (high threat, low surprise), handgun (high threat, high surprise), wallet (low threat, low surprise) or a whole raw chicken (low threat, high surprise)
  • They found identification of the man was least accurate in high surprise conditions rather than high threat
  • Suggests weapon focus effect is related to surprise
• Limitation = demand characteristics in lab studies

  • Most lab studies show participants a filmed, usually staged, crime
  • There is a high chance that they will work out they are going to be asked a question about what they have seen
• Limitation = problems with Yerkes-Dodson law

  • Yerkes-Dodson law appears to be a reasonable explanation of the contradictory findings linking anxiety with both increased and decreased eyewitness recall
  • However it ignores the fact anxiety has many elements - cognitive, behavioural, emotional and physical
  • Focuses solely on idea of physical arousal and assumes this is the only aspect linked to EWT
  • However the interconnection of the elements of anxiety is likely to cumulatively cause anxiety, not just the physical element alone