The weapon focus effect on memory for female versus male perpetrators

@article{Pickel2009TheWF,
  title={The weapon focus effect on memory for female versus male perpetrators},
  author={Kerri L. Pickel},
  journal={Memory},
  year={2009},
  volume={17},
  pages={664 - 678}
}
  • K. Pickel
  • Published 6 July 2009
  • Psychology
  • Memory
Previous research suggests that weapons are often inconsistent with the schema activated by eyewitnesses, which leads them to attend to weapons more than they would to neutral objects. Therefore an especially strong weapon focus effect should occur when a perpetrator holds an object primarily associated with the opposite rather than the same gender. As predicted, a handgun reduced the accuracy of witnesses’ descriptions of a female perpetrator more than descriptions of a male perpetrator… 
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The weapon focus effect is weaker with Black versus White male perpetrators
TLDR
It is proposed that observing an armed Black perpetrator automatically activates a stereotype linking Black men with weapons and crime, which in turn reduces the perceived unusualness of the weapon and thus its ability to attract attention.
Temporal shifts in weapon focus: Comparing retrograde and anterograde effects
When an eyewitness suffers an impairment of memory for a criminal’s face because the criminal used a weapon during the commission of the crime, this impairment is called the weapon focus effect.…
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We examined the effects of acute alcohol on eyewitness memory for a simulated armed robbery under laboratory conditions. Alcohol and placebo participants viewed a slide series showing a target male…
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Abstract Weapon focus is frequently cited as a factor in eyewitness testimony, and is broadly defined as a weapon-related decrease in performance on subsequent tests of memory for those elements of…
The Weapon Focus Effect for Person Identifications and Descriptions: A Meta-analysis
In many crimes involving a weapon, witnesses report difficulties remembering the face of the perpetrator. In the current meta-analysis, we synthesized tests of the hypothesis that the presence of a…
The Weapon Focus Effect in Target‐Present and Target‐Absent Line‐Ups: The Roles of Threat, Novelty, and Timing
Summary When an eyewitness suffers an impairment of memory for a perpetrator because the criminal used a weapon during the crime, this impairment is called the weapon focus effect. The literature is…
Is it Strange or is it Scary? Examining Salience and Arousal Explanations of the “Weapons Focus Effect”
There is a mass of research literature providing evidence for the ‘Weapon Focus’ effect which although traditionally accounted for in terms of an Arousal explanation, underpinned by Easterbrook’s…
Armed and attentive: Holding a weapon can bias attentional priorities in scene viewing
TLDR
Evidence confirms that the action capabilities of the observer alter more than just perceptual mechanisms and that holding a weapon can change attentional priorities.
A Synthetic Perspective on the Own-Race Bias in Eyewitness Identification
Perceivers show worse memory for other-race than own-race faces. Much of the interest in this own-race bias (ORB) stems from the problems that it may introduce in eyewitness misidentification. Here…
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References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 44 REFERENCES
The Influence of Context on the “Weapon Focus” Effect
Two experiments investigated context effects in “weapon focus.” In Experiment 1, undergraduates who watched a videotape depicting an armed man provided less accurate descriptions of him if the action…
Weapon focus, arousal, and eyewitness memory
Weapon focus refers to the decreased ability to give an accurate description of the perpetrator of a crime by an eyewitness because of attention to a weapon present during that crime. In the first…
Weapon Focus and Gender Differences in Eyewitness Accuracy: Arousal Versus Salience
Competing theories of arousal versus salience and object enhancement vs. reduced perceptual processing as explanations for the weapon focus effect in eyewitness identification were examined. Male and…
The weapon focus effect revisited: The role of novelty
Purpose. The relationship between novelty, self-reported affect, and the weapon focus effect was investigated. Methods. In two experiments, college students watched a videotaped scene in which…
The weapon focus effect in child eyewitnesses
Abstract The present study investigated whether children would exhibit the weapon focus effect that has been demonstrated with adult eyewitnesses. Participants (4- and 5-year-olds, 7- and…
Sex differences, weapon focus, and eyewitness reliability.
Two aspects of eyewitness identification were tested: sex differences in eyewitness reliability and an explanation of the weapon focus effect that is based on object salience. One hundred ninety-one…
Eyewitness identification: Simulating the “Weapon effect”
The present experiment investigates the effect of weapons on eyewitness recall and recognition using a new experimental paradigm in which a syringe serves as weapon simulation. Contrary to previous…
Unusualness and threat as possible causes of "weapon focus".
TLDR
In two experiments exploring possible causes of the "weapon focus" effect, undergraduates viewed videotapes depicting interactions in business establishments and had difficulty remembering the low-threat, non-unusual object.
A “weapon focus” effect in children
Abstract Experiments suggest that the presence of a weapon impairs memory for the appearance of the perpetrator (“weapon focus”), although whether this reflects threat or novelty value remains…
Do weapons automatically capture attention
Two experiments explored whether weapons automatically capture attention or whether eyewitnesses can overcome the weapon focus effect if so instructed. Witnesses heard a lecture that either…
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