Lesson ObjectivesEWT and Anxiety

To KNOW & UNDERSTAND what anxiety and weapon focus are. To UNDERSTAND how anxiety can affect EWT. To KNOW, UNDERSTAND & EVALUATE research into the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Success Cr i ter ia

How will I know if I am learning?

By the end of the lesson…E Will be able to define weapon focus.

C Will be able to explain how anxiety can affect EWT.

A Will be able to fully describe and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Anxiety

Look at the following pictures….

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety

What were your eyes most drawn to?

How might this make you feel?

How might this affect your performance as an eye witness?

Anxiety

What were your eyes most drawn to?

How might this affect your performance as an eye witness?

What does being Anxious feel like….?

“Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state where we fear that something bad is about to happen. People often become anxious when they are in

stressful situations. This anxiety tends to be accompanied with physiological arousal

(increased heart rate, shallow breathing). Due to this, much of the research in eye witness testimony is now focused on the effects of

arousal.”

Anxiety

What were your eyes most drawn to?

How might this affect your performance as an eye witness?

What does the research say?High levels of stress made EW memory inaccurateDeffenbacher et al 2004-meta-analysis which found that high levels of stress impacted on the accuracy of EWT.

High levels of stress made EW memory goodEmotional arousal may enhance memory Christianson & Hubinette 1993- Questioned real victims of a bank robbery. They found that those who had actually been threatened were more accurate in their recall, compared to those who were onlookers. This continued to be true 15 months later.

Anxiety

What were your eyes most drawn to?

How might this affect your performance as an eye witness?

However….Task:

1) Summarise Christianson & Hubinette’s (1993) study in your notes.

2) Read Loftus et al’s study on page 18 weapon focus effect and summarise in your notes

Anxiety

What were your eyes most drawn to?

How might this affect your performance as an eye witness?

However….Loftus et al..

According to Loftus et al… Where would this witness be looking during the scene of a crime involving a weapon? What effect did Loftus find this had on EWT?

The weapon-focus effect“This is where in violent crimes, arousal may focus the witness on more central details of the attack (eg: weapon) than the more peripheral details (eg: what

else was going on and what the perpetrator looked like).”

Anxiety

The weapon-focus effect

Anxiety

Weapon Focus Incident

What do they Remember?

How can we explain these contrasting findings…?

Task: How would this explain the

conflicting research?

Anxiety

Deffenbacher

explains

differences using

the

YERKES-DODSON

LAW (1908)

Real World Applications & Evaluation

What other

evidence is

there which can

be used for

AO2?

How can you evaluate the research from today’s

lesson…?

Anxiety

Lab studyArtificial

Internal validityExternal (Ecological Validity)

Representativeness of the participantsEthical issues

Demand characteristics

Might we find something different if it was a real life event??

Real World Applications & Evaluation

• Does a weapon attract attention because it is unusual?

• Pickel (1999) found no evidence of weapon focus when eyewitnesses saw someone pointing a gun in a situation (a shooting range) in which guns are expected.

• Most of the research has been lab based.• Validity in EWT- Real life studies have more

emotional impact.

Anxiety

Your Task

2010 An American space shuttle exploded soon after it was launched.

All of the astronauts on board werekilled. Crowds of people were watching, including

friends and relatives of the astronauts. Six months after the explosion, a student decided to investigate the accuracy of

some of the eyewitnesses’ memory of this event.

Explain how anxiety might have affected eyewitness testimony of this event. Refer to psychological research in your answer. (6 marks)

Anxiety

Mark SchemeCandidates must refer to research where the anxiety component is

clear.Candidates might refer to the Yerkes-Dodson law which suggests moderate anxiety is associated with better recall than very high or very low anxiety. In this case friends and relatives might show worse recall than other people in the crowd.

Laboratory based research has generally shown impaired recall in high anxiety conditions. Loftus’ (1979) weapon focuss, Loftus and Burns (1982).

However, in a real life study Yuille and Cutshill (1986) found witnesses who had been most distressed at the time of a shooting gave the most accurate account five months later. Also Christianson and Hubinette (1993) found victims of genuine bank robberies were more accurate in their recall than bystanders.

There is a range of acceptable answers to this question and marks should be given for effective use of the material.

Answers which do not make explicit reference to this event should be awarded a maximum of 4 marks.

Anxiety

Passing Notes…• In your teams your aim is to get a complete set

of correct notes without looking at your textbook or workbook and without consulting each other.

• Decide on an order in which each team member will have a turn.

• The first team member starts with the paper and writes down the first required note. They fold over their answer and pass the note to the next nominated team mate. They write down the next note and fold theirs over and pass it on…. Etc.

To Finish…

Passing Notes…• In your teams your aim is to get a complete set of

correct notes without looking at your textbook or workbook and without consulting each other.

• Decide on an order in which each team member will have a turn.

• The first team member starts with the paper and writes down the first required note. They fold over their answer and pass the note to the next nominated team mate. They write down the next note and fold theirs over and pass it on…. Etc.

To Finish…

Passing Notes…To Finish…

Player 1: Write down the name(s) of psychologist(s) who found that anxiety had a positive effect on EWT.

Player 2 : Write down the name(s) of psychologist(s) who found that anxiety had a negative effect on EWT.

Player 3: Describe the Weapon Focus Effect

Player 4: Write down the name of the law which explains differences in the effect of anxiety on EWT.

Player 5: Explain the Yerkes Dodson Law.

Player 6: Draw a sketch of the Yerkes Dodson Graph.

Player 7: Write down one evaluation of research into anxiety and EWT.

Success Cr i ter ia

How will I know if I am learning?

By the end of the lesson…E Will be able to define weapon focus.

C Will be able to explain how anxiety can affect EWT.

A Will be able to fully describe and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Who would give the most accurate eyewitness account and why?

To Start…

Lesson ObjectivesEWT and Age

To KNOW & UNDERSTAND what the own age bias is. To UNDERSTAND research into how age affects EWT. To EVALUATE Loftus’ research into the effect of age into EWT.

Success Cr i ter ia

How will I know if I am learning?

By the end of the lesson…E Will be able to define the own age bias.

C Will be able to explain how age affects EWT.

A Will be able to evaluate research into the effects of age on EWT.

Are Children Reliable Eye Witnesses?

Age & EWT

Card Sort: Findings There is lots of research into age and

EWT. Sort them into research that suggests older eye witnesses are more accurate, and research that suggests younger witnesses are accurate.

Summarise the findings in your table.

Age & EWT

Older EW’s are most accurate Younger EW’s are most accurate

Extension: How conclusive is the evidence? Why might this be?

Card Sort: Findings

Can you think of any methodological evaluation points of any of these findings?

Hint: What about ethical issues regarding children?

Age & EWT

However (A02)???

• Most studies show old people show poor performance on eyewitness memory tests. However, most of the research has asked old people to recognise college students, but evidence suggests people are better are recognising people their own age!

However (A02)???

Anastasi & Rhodes (2006) used individuals from three age groups. They had to rate 24 individuals (from different age groups) for attractiveness. Later they were presented with 48 photos: 24 they had seen previously, and 24 distractors.

Age & EWT

Anastasi & Rhodes (2006) Young Photos Middle Aged

PhotosOlder Photos

Young Participants 90 87 85

Middle Aged Participants

85 93 87

Older Participants 56 62 66

Age & EWT

% of correct recognition in each age group.

What do these results imply about age of the participant and age of the target?

Own Age Bias

Apparent age effects may be due to the fact that people do best when asked to identify people of their own age group.

Perhaps this is because we have more contact with people who are a similar age to us. The lesser experience we have, the greater the own age bias.

When we encounter people of our own age group more regularly we become better at processing those faces and therefore have better memory for them.

Age & EWT

Task

Summarise the Own Age Bias and supporting research in your notes.

Age & EWT

And finally – Using Psychological research, answer the following question. How does age influence the accuracy of

EWT (4 marks).

Age & EWT

Now Peer Assess your answers.

Swap your answers and

mark them out of 4.

Success Cr i ter ia

How will I know if I am learning?

By the end of the lesson…E Will be able to define the own age bias.

C Will be able to explain how age affects EWT.

A Will be able to evaluate research into the effects of age on EWT.

Task: Factors Affecting Eye Witnesses

• A case of Wrongful conviction

Read the description of the crime, a man is protesting his innocence. You have been employed as a Forensic Psychologist to help the defence team with their appeal

1. Explain how the witness’ testimony might have been distorted

2. Use what you have learnt this week and last week (think about post event info, age, anxiety, weapon focus etc)

3. Use evidence from Psychological studies to support the issues you raise.

Age & EWT

HomeworkTo what extent does age influence the accuracy

of eyewitness accounts? (12 marks)

Age & EWT