FACTORS AFFECTING EWT

1. FACTORS AFFECTING EWT ANXIETY AND AGE

2. EFFECTS OF ANXIETY on EWT • There is a difference in results found in lab experiments and in real life. • Recall after real life events is generally better. • Sympathetic arousal caused by acute stress enhances memory. • This is likely to be greater in real life situations

3. Lab experiments • When people know they are taking part in lab experiments they may not feel the same anxiety that they do in real life. • This may mean that their recall does not reflect the recall which would be found in a real life situation. • This means that such experiments lack ecological validity because if the setting was changed the results would be different.

4. Loftus • Loftus attempted to deal with this by creating a situation which was thought to be real. • While participants were waiting for the experiment to begin (or so they though) they witnessed an altercation between two people in a room. • Condition 1 – the interchange was friendly and a man emerged with greasy hands holding a pen • Condition 2 – the interchange was hostile and a man emerged holding knife with blood on it. • Participants were less able to correctly identify the man in a photo in condition 2.

5. Weapon focus • Loftus concluded that a weapon narrows the focus of the witness.

6. In real life • Recall after real life bank robberies is better than recall in artificial situations. • This could be because participants in experiments take it less seriously and feel less anxiety.

7. Christianson and Hubinette (1993) • Found that people who had been threatened during bank robberies had better recall than onlookers. • This could be due to the level of anxiety.

8. Optimum level • It could be that there is an optimum level for anxiety. • Recall improves up to a point and then declines if anxiety continues to increase.

9. Evaluative points • Lab studies might not reflect what happens in real life • Participants may respond to demand cues which may affect their behaviour and recall • This means that the findings won’t necessarily be generalisable to real life situations due to a lack of ecological validity. • There may be a certain degree of anxiety in participants taking part in experiments due to wanting to do well etc. But this may not reflect the level of anxiety they would feel in a real life situation. It may be more or less depending on what is happening. • Taking part in a lab experiment may result in participants not taking it as seriously as they would in real life.

10. Effects of age • There is conflicting evidence about the effects of age on EWT.

11. Identity parades • Children are very keen to take part • But often pick out the wrong person. • Made more errors than college students

12. Questioning children • Young children can be accurate in their witness testimony • But are susceptible to leading questions. • They need questioning carefully. • Gordon et al. 2001

13. Davies et al 1994 • Believes that differences between child and adult witnesses are overstated. • Children can provide very accurate testimony if care is taken when interviewing

14. Memon et al 2003 • Studied 16-33 year olds • 60 – 82 year olds • No difference in recall after 35 minutes • Significantly less recall for older witnesses after one week

15. Ewt less accurate over time • Flin et al . (1992) • Especially in children. • Significant forgetting after 5 months compared to adults. • Significant because court cases are often delayed

16. Elderly eye witnesses • Yarney (1984) • May be more prone to errors of recall than younger witnesses. • 80% of elderly (70+) witnesses failed to mention that the attacker had a knife compared to • 20% of younger adults.

17. Cohen & Faulkner (1989) • Elderly participants were more susceptible to the effects of misleading information compared to middle-aged participants.

18. Anastasi & Rhodes 2006 • Used 3 age groups • 18-25 • 35 – 45 • 55 – 78 • The young and middle-aged were significantly more accurate at identifying photos • But each age group were better when identifying photos from their own age group

19. Yarney 1993 • 18 – 44 year olds were more confident in their recall than • 45 – 65 year olds when asked to recall physical characteristics of a young woman to whom they had spoken for 15 seconds just 2 minutes earlier. • No difference in the accuracy of their recall..

20. Evaluative points • The same criticisms can apply as before with reference to the artificiality of lab experiments. • Care should be taken when using children in experiments to ensure that they are not put under stress. • Deception may be needed in some experiments on EWT which also presents an ethical issue. • Researcher bias may affect the way participants are questioned and this may affect the result. • Individual differences should be considered as people vary in their memory ability.

21. Evaluative points • It is wrong to say that old people make poorer witnesses. • This could be a socially sensitive issue if it results in a particular age group being labelled as untrustworthy when it comes to remembering things. • Overall, it is important to note that the very young and the elderly are more susceptible to misleading information and so should be questioned very carefully.