Briefly discuss one factor affecting performance in Eye-Witness testimony (6 marks)

One affect on our performance in eye witness testimony is levels of anxiety and stress. The Yerkes-Dodson law states that there is a relationship between levels of anxiety/stress and the efficiency of our memory. This law states that low levels of anxiety has limited effect on our recall in our testimony, but as levels of anxiety increase, so does our performance but only up to an 'optimal level'. When levels of anxiety exceed this level, the performance of our testimony decreases. Psychological studies have conflicting views on what the effect of anxiety is on our performance in an eye-witness testimony. Loftus showed participants a violent video of a boy being shot in the face. From this study she found that people who were exposed to the highest levels of anxiety performed worse when asked about questions from the crime. However, Christianson and Hubinette showed 110 witnesses 22 robberies in which some of them had been involved in and found that those who experienced higher levels of anxiety were able to recall more specifics from the event they had witnessed. It is clear that psychological research has conflicting views on this subject.