The Impact of State and Trait Anxiety on Performance in an Eyewitness Source Monitoring Task

Abstract

The current study examined the effects of combinations of state and trait anxiety on a source monitoring eyewitness memory task. Sixty-nine participants either received an anxious mood induction to induce high state anxiety or a neutral mood induction and also responded to a questionnaire that assessed anxiety. Participants were divided into 4 groups (high state, high trait; high state, low trait; low trait, high state; low trait, low state) based on their assigned induction condition and their responses to the anxiety questionnaire. All participants then received a source monitoring task in which they watched a forensically relevant video and received misinformation about the contents of the video via reading a questionnaire. After filler tasks and a positive mood induction which ensured that the anxiety wore off, all participants completed a source monitoring task. Participants who received the anxious mood induction responded more accurately to the source monitoring questions, particularly those about the video. Trait anxiety enhanced this effect somewhat. There were no significant differences in the tendency to incorporate misinformation presented in the questionnaire into memory, but some types of source misattributions were more likely in participants with high trait anxiety.