Anxiety as a factor affecting eyewitness testimony accuracy
Anxiety — the feeling of stress or fear — can change how accurately a witness remembers a crime. High anxiety sometimes sharpens memory but often distorts it, especially for specific details.
Real World
In Johnson and Scott's (1976) 'weapon focus' study, participants who saw a man holding a bloody knife were far less accurate at identifying him in a line-up than those who saw the same man holding a pen — high anxiety narrowed their attention to the threatening weapon rather than the person's face.
Exam Focus
Present both Yerkes-Dodson and weapon focus evidence, then explain the contradiction — this demonstrates the 'discuss' skill examiners want.
Evaluation Scaffold
A four-step framework for high-quality evaluation. Use this for 'assess', 'evaluate', and 'to what extent' questions.
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