accuracy of ewt - anxiety Flashcards
what is anxiety?
a state of emotional and physical arousal (e.g. worried thoughts & high heart rate) that happens as a reaction to stressful situations
Johnson and Scott - negative effect
ppts thought they were in the waiting room of a study. group one overheard a normal conversations and saw a man walk out of the room with a pen and grease on hands. group two heard a heated argument and crashing, and saw a man run out with a bloodied letter opener. when ppts were shown photos and asked to identify the man, no weapon group were 49% accurate and weapon group were 33% accurate.
what is meant by the weapon focus effect?
in high anxiety situations, ppts focus on the weapon and not the person
Yuille and Cutshall - positive effect
studied a real shooting in Canada, gun shop owner shot thief dead, 13 of 21 involved participated, they were asked to rate stress/anxiety on a scale of 1-7 then recall details of the event, which were compared to original police reports. those who reported higher anxiety recalled 88% of details while those who reported lower anxiety recalled 75%
what is the Yerkes-Dodson law?
Deffenbacher - optimal level of anxiety for maximum accuracy
when anxiety is moderate EWT is enhanced, but when it is very high accuracy is reduced.
explains contradictory findings
+AO3 (neg) - research support, Valentine & Mesout (2009)
used heart rate to divide ppts into high and low anxiety groups, ppts asked to recall details about an actor inside london dungeon, low anxiety group has much better recall. strength because it suggests anxiety does in fact have a negative effect on recall.
-AO3 (neg) - Pickel (1998)
experiment in a hairdresser’s using scissors, a handgun, a wallet and a raw chicken. eyewitness accuracy was poorer in high unusualness conditions (handgun and chicken). suggests weapon focus effect is due to the unusual occurrence rather than anxiety, and so doesn’t truly show the effects of anxiety of EWT
+AO3 (pos) - research support Christianson and Hubinette (1993)
interviewed 58 witnesses to bank robberies in Sweden, ppts were either directly involved (bank workers) or indirectly involved (bystanders). researchers assumed those directly involved would have higher anxiety but recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses. suggests anxiety does not have a negative effect on recall.
-AO3 - inverted U is too simplistic
ignores the fact that anxiety has many elements, cognitive, behavioural, emotional, etc. focuses only on physical arousal and assumes it is the only aspect linked to EWT, when for example the way er think about a stressful situation may also be important. therefore may noy be a suitable explanation for the effect of anxiety on EWT and the contradictory findings
