The influence of stress on giving testimony
In this paper there are firstly some general observations about stress (the concept of stress, stressors, stress responses, consequences of stress). Then, the author examines the effect of stress on giving testimony, that is on two most important psychic functions of the importance for giving testim...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Law
2015-01-01
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| Series: | Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0550-2179/2015/0550-21791504597B.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828235539388563456 |
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| author | Brkić Snežana S. |
| author_facet | Brkić Snežana S. |
| author_sort | Brkić Snežana S. |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper there are firstly some general observations about stress (the concept of stress, stressors, stress responses, consequences of stress). Then, the author examines the effect of stress on giving testimony, that is on two most important psychic functions of the importance for giving testimony: perception and memory. The impact of stress, on perception is discussed in the framework of the importance of affective tone of perception. The lower doses of stress can improve attention and perception, but with intense stress, attention rapidly decreases. Stress often causes erroneous perception of time and other errors in observation and can lead to illusions and hallucinations. The errors in face recognition are also possible in view of 'the phenomenon of focusing attention on weapon '. In relationship with memory, the author firstly gives some general considerations about this function. Then follows brief overview of memory for emotionally colored events. The negative influence of stress on memory is reflected in the possibility of psychogenic amnesia, which are often the escort of psychological trauma. Further, some events will be remembered with a lot of gaps, distortions and overemphasis. The paper points to a number of studies on (in)accuracies and (in)complete memories for traumatic events. Summarizing the main results of these studies it is concluded that memory for traumatic events has similar sharacteristics as memory for normal, nontraumatic events. Memory for traumatic events also follows the same cognitive principles. In that sense, both traumatic and nontraumatic memories can be equally powerful on the one hand, and on the other hand, there may be gaps or errors in memory as well as for the positive and negative life events. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T20:16:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3d86942e17b345b8bd40f08bc6b63ba6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0550-2179 2406-1255 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T20:16:58Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Law |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu |
| spelling | doaj.art-3d86942e17b345b8bd40f08bc6b63ba62022-12-22T03:18:06ZengUniversity of Novi Sad, Faculty of LawZbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu0550-21792406-12552015-01-014941597163210.5937/zrpfns49-97810550-21791504597BThe influence of stress on giving testimonyBrkić Snežana S.0University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Law, Novi Sad, SerbiaIn this paper there are firstly some general observations about stress (the concept of stress, stressors, stress responses, consequences of stress). Then, the author examines the effect of stress on giving testimony, that is on two most important psychic functions of the importance for giving testimony: perception and memory. The impact of stress, on perception is discussed in the framework of the importance of affective tone of perception. The lower doses of stress can improve attention and perception, but with intense stress, attention rapidly decreases. Stress often causes erroneous perception of time and other errors in observation and can lead to illusions and hallucinations. The errors in face recognition are also possible in view of 'the phenomenon of focusing attention on weapon '. In relationship with memory, the author firstly gives some general considerations about this function. Then follows brief overview of memory for emotionally colored events. The negative influence of stress on memory is reflected in the possibility of psychogenic amnesia, which are often the escort of psychological trauma. Further, some events will be remembered with a lot of gaps, distortions and overemphasis. The paper points to a number of studies on (in)accuracies and (in)complete memories for traumatic events. Summarizing the main results of these studies it is concluded that memory for traumatic events has similar sharacteristics as memory for normal, nontraumatic events. Memory for traumatic events also follows the same cognitive principles. In that sense, both traumatic and nontraumatic memories can be equally powerful on the one hand, and on the other hand, there may be gaps or errors in memory as well as for the positive and negative life events.http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0550-2179/2015/0550-21791504597B.pdfwitnessstresstraumamemoryamnesia |
| spellingShingle | Brkić Snežana S. The influence of stress on giving testimony Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu witness stress trauma memory amnesia |
| title | The influence of stress on giving testimony |
| title_full | The influence of stress on giving testimony |
| title_fullStr | The influence of stress on giving testimony |
| title_full_unstemmed | The influence of stress on giving testimony |
| title_short | The influence of stress on giving testimony |
| title_sort | influence of stress on giving testimony |
| topic | witness stress trauma memory amnesia |
| url | http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0550-2179/2015/0550-21791504597B.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brkicsnezanas theinfluenceofstressongivingtestimony AT brkicsnezanas influenceofstressongivingtestimony |