anxiety

Question 1

what is anxiety?

Answer 1

Anxiety is a mental state of arousal that includes feelings of extreme tension. This is often accompanied by physiological changes such as increased heart rate.

Question 2

weapon focus effect

Answer 2

• weapons are a source of danger and anxiety, and witnesses are distracted, focusing attention on the weapon rather than the criminals’

Question 3

weapon focus has a negative effect - johnson and scott 1976

Answer 3

● Ps sat in a waiting room believing they were going to take part in a lab study
●heard an argument in the next room
- Low-anxiety condition: A man walked through the waiting room carrying a pen.
- High-anxiety condition: sound of breaking glass. A man then walked through the room holding a knife covered in blood.

● Ps were later asked to pick the man from a set of 50 photographs
Findings:
49% of Ps in the low-anxiety condition were able to identify him,
- 33% of Ps in the high-anxiety condition

• This suggests that a witness’s attention is on the weapon (weapon focus), because it’s a source of danger and anxiety

Question 4

positive effect on recall - Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

Answer 4

● In a real-life crime a gun-shop owner shot a thief dead
● Interviewed 13 witnesses 4-5 months after the incident
● Accounts were compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting
● Witnesses rated how stressed they felt at the time of the incident
Findings:
● Witnesses were very accurate and there was little change after 5 months
● Recall was as high as 88%
● Those who reported the highest levels of stress at the time gave the most accurate responses
This is supported by Christianson and Hubinette (1993) who showed 110 victims who had been directly threatened during 22 genuine bank robberies were more accurate and detailed in their recall than bystanders

Question 5

Yerkes and Dodson Law of arousal (‘Inverted U’ theory)

Answer 5

• accuracy increases as anxiety raises, to a point at which anxiety becomes too high and more stress results in lower accuracy
• Optimal arousal = optimal performance

Question 6

Anxiety affects memory

Answer 6

• Deffenbacher (1983) found that lower levels of anxiety did produce lower levels of recall.
• Recall accuracy increases with anxiety up to an optimal point.
• A drastic decline in accuracy is seen when an eyewitness experiences more anxiety than the optimal point.