PSY328H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Convenience Store, Suggestibility, Cognitive Dissonance
Document Summary
Rate of correct identification was significantly higher for participants at a low-stress condition. Low stress condition: 25% identified the wrong person. High-stress condition: 58 % identified the wrong person. Event that is high personal relevant, high stressful and realistic are subject to error. The effect of arousal on encoding of information is generally negative, because they are afraid and worried about their own safety. High stress impairs memory and consequently reduces the rate of correct identifications. Weapon focus effect: they tend to focus their attention on the weapon. Consequently, they paid less attention of the face of the criminal. Support the arousal/threat hypothesis and the unusual item hypothesis. Sometimes the mug shot face can be transferred to memory and decrease in the correct identifications and increase in mistaken identifications. Recall of a crime scene may also be altered depending on how the eyewitness is initially questioned.
