eyewitness testimony

what is it?

The ability to remember the details of a key event accident over crimes they have observed firsthand

how does anxiety have a negative impact?

Anxiety could have a negative effect when someone becomes over aroused when we become overaroused this the negatively affects our tension as it reduces our ability to attend to accuse in a situation

If there was something threatening at the scene like blood or weapon, we can get tunnel vision we’re all our attention is drawn to the threat and we miss other important information. This is known as the weapon focus

how can anxiety have a positive effect?

When the fight or flight response is triggered Which can cause an increase in arousal. This increased arousal increases loudness and dilate pupils which allows for people to attend to more cues in the situation.

what was uni and Lu Shaw’s study?

Procedure: investigate the effect of anxiety in a real life shooting. One person was killed and another was seriously wounded. 21 witnesses originally interviewed by police and 13 witnesses age 15 to 32 took part in Yuli and cut shows follow-up interview. 4 to 5 months later when it says what asked to rate anxiety on a scale anxiety those who reported low anxiety was 77% accurate. Those were reported high or 88% accurate

findings: 13 witnesses from follow-up interview were accurate and eyewitness accounts. Five months later and little change was found in the testimonies. All major detail details remain the same and the only minor details changed.

conclusion: these results refute the weapon focus effect and results of Johnson and Scott and show that in real life cases of extreme anxiety but accuracy of EWT is not affected

What does Yerkes-Dodson law state?

there is an optimum level of anxiety for an accurate EWT

People who are not stressed and people who are very stressed will be less accurate eye witnesses than those who are under a model amount of stress

how can we improve accuracy of eyewitness testimonies

By using a cognitive interview

how does a cognitive interview work?

Report everything

Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of the event, even if it seems irrelevant The trivial details may trigger other important memories that may act as cues. Witnesses are retrieving episode and romantic long-term memories which is aided by trying to retrieve as much information as possible using any queue they can context and state dependent.

how else does a cognitive interview work?

Reinstate the context

witnesses should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment emotions this technique is based on context dependent failure by getting witnesses to every detail of the crime scene. This may help them retrieve more information based on the accuses made the environment/context

how else does a cognitive interview help?

Reverse the order

Event should be recorded in a different chronological order. This prevents people from reporting what they expect to happen and to focus on the actual event this of witnesses relying on Skimore recalling what they expected to happen and encourages witnesses to use cues from contact to help accurately retrieve info

what is the last stage of the cognitive interview?

Change perspective

Witness recall event events from another perspective, The aim is to disrupt expectations or schemes about the event. This is because schemer is about an event can create expectations and can affect the accuracy of a cool changing perspective makes a witness see both contacts and state of the incident differently. This may allow them to use more cues from the context.