Summary to be provided by Laura
Beyond Unusual? Examining the Role of Attention in the Weapon Focus Effect
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TrackBack URL: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/214
TrackBack URL: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/214
This article on the weapon focus effect questioned whether this effect could be accounted for in terms of stimulus novelty. This is an excellent idea and my topic on stress also proposed this idea.
Basically, the participants were shown a threatening, unusual, or neutral object. A gun was used for the threatening object, a feather duster for the unusual, and a wallet for the neutral object. Confidence, reaction time, and accuracy were all tested. After the slides were shown, participants were asked to describe what they had seen. The correct response rates were 59% for weapon, 70% for unusual, and 82% for the neutral condition. Confidence rates indicated that weapon conditions were significantly less confident in their recognition responses than participants in either unusual or control condition. Results also showed that the participants in the weapon condition provided significantly more details about the object than participants in the unusual or neutral condition.
In conclusion, this article suggests that a threatening or unusual object commands more visual attention than a neutral object, however, the accuracy and confidence are lower in a threatening object. Research in fear, emotions, and novelty might provide more answers to research and how they relate to eyewitness identification, specifically the weapon focus effect.
Past research on the weapon focus effect has been mixed. Some have concluded that the presence of a weapon enhances memory and others have found the opposite. The current study by Hope and Wright (2006) found that the weapon focus effect negatively affects memory and confidence declines when a weapon is present as opposed to a non-threatening object.
The study was done a in a lab and consisted of individuals watching slides of an individual entering a convenient store and pulling out three different objects. The objects were a gun (weapon condition), a feather duster (unusual object), and a mans wallet (control). Reaction time, identification of the target, and the confidence were all inhibited when seeing the weapon condition and unusual condition. Reaction time was assessed by having individuals hit a button to determine whether it took longer to answer when the different objects were presented. The gun and feather duster both took longer to react to. Identification was inhibited the most in the weapon condition and confidence levels went down as well. The article stated that confidence is important in the criminal justice system because jurors believe that eyewitnesses who exhibit confidence are more accurate. There has been much research done on eyewitness confidence and how they are not correlated. I am surprised that the article did not mention any of this research.
One reason why this effect may occur is due to the different levels of information and their importance. Seeing a guy with a gun requires more of your attention than his face because the gun imposes danger. Other information may fall secondary as well to the focus on the weapon. I can understand this because as humans we have the need for survival ingrained in us, so seeing a threat like a weapon would likely exhibit an excitatory response. I think this effect definitely exists and I would be more focused on a weapon than the perpetrators face.