TY - JOUR PY - 2006// TI - Fatal impact? The effects of emotional arousal and weapon presence on police officers' memories for a simulated crime JO - Legal and criminological psychology A1 - Hulse, Lynn M. A1 - Memon, Amina SP - 313 EP - 325 VL - 11 IS - 2 N2 - Purpose. (1) To investigate the effects of emotional arousal and weapon presence on the completeness and accuracy of police officers' memories; and (2) to better simulate the experience of witnessing a shooting and providing testimony.Methods. A firearms training simulator was used to present 70 experienced police officers with either a shooting or a domestic dispute scenario containing no weapons. Arousal was measured using both self-report and physiological indices. Recall for event details was tested after a 10-minute delay using a structured interview. Identification accuracy was assessed with a photographic line-up.Results. Self-report measures confirmed that the shooting induced greater arousal than did the other scenario. Overall, officers' memories for the event were less complete, but more accurate, when they had witnessed the shooting. The recall and line-up data did not support a weapon focus effect.Conclusions. Police officers' recall performance can be affected both qualitatively and quantitatively by witnessing an arousing event such as a shooting.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1355-3259 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/135532505X58062 ID - ref1 ER -