Contemporary Study: Valentine and Mesout
2009
Eye-witness identification under stress
Aims:
Sought to address the heightened anxiety that would be experienced in a real life eye-witness testimony.
Testing eye-witness identification in an everyday situation within which anxiety would be high and
participants would not realise that their memory was being tested.
Procedure: Findings:
London Dungeon - tourist attraction Mean SAI score in the labyrinth was 49.0
Ppts were tested in the Labyrinth with scary Mean TAI score was 36.8
events - including a screaming skeleton and a Strong negative association between state anxiety
wounded man (scary person) and the ability to correctly report the appearance
Pre-test conducted by the researchers which of a person encountered under stress
established increased in heart rate and levels of Ppts were divided into those with high state
fear/arousal anxiety over 52 and low
56 ppts and all agreed to complete a series of Only 17% who scored higher could identify the
questionnaires in exchanged for reduced ticket scary person correctly
price
Ppts walked 7 minutes and the whole exhibition
took around 45 minutes Conclusion:
Informed consent obtained and 3 questionnaires: Suggests that accurate eye-witness identification
TAI - trait anxiety inventory - measured the is impaired under conditions of high anxiety
ppts typical state of anxiety Memory is negatively affected by increased
SAI - state anxiety inventory - measured how physiological arousal - leads to less reliable
ppts felt when they were in the labyrinth accounts
Memory questionnaire to recall the scary The higher level of stress experienced in a real life
person crime scenario, the harder it becomes to correctly
Ppts asked to identify the scary person from a identify the perpetrator
group of 9 photos
Matched for age, sex and ethnic origin
2009
Eye-witness identification under stress
Aims:
Sought to address the heightened anxiety that would be experienced in a real life eye-witness testimony.
Testing eye-witness identification in an everyday situation within which anxiety would be high and
participants would not realise that their memory was being tested.
Procedure: Findings:
London Dungeon - tourist attraction Mean SAI score in the labyrinth was 49.0
Ppts were tested in the Labyrinth with scary Mean TAI score was 36.8
events - including a screaming skeleton and a Strong negative association between state anxiety
wounded man (scary person) and the ability to correctly report the appearance
Pre-test conducted by the researchers which of a person encountered under stress
established increased in heart rate and levels of Ppts were divided into those with high state
fear/arousal anxiety over 52 and low
56 ppts and all agreed to complete a series of Only 17% who scored higher could identify the
questionnaires in exchanged for reduced ticket scary person correctly
price
Ppts walked 7 minutes and the whole exhibition
took around 45 minutes Conclusion:
Informed consent obtained and 3 questionnaires: Suggests that accurate eye-witness identification
TAI - trait anxiety inventory - measured the is impaired under conditions of high anxiety
ppts typical state of anxiety Memory is negatively affected by increased
SAI - state anxiety inventory - measured how physiological arousal - leads to less reliable
ppts felt when they were in the labyrinth accounts
Memory questionnaire to recall the scary The higher level of stress experienced in a real life
person crime scenario, the harder it becomes to correctly
Ppts asked to identify the scary person from a identify the perpetrator
group of 9 photos
Matched for age, sex and ethnic origin
