Anxiety

Question 1

What is anxiety?

Answer 1

Unpleasant emotional state accompanied by increased heart rate and rapid breathing

Question 2

How does anxiety have a negative effect on accuracy?

Answer 2

Johnson and Scott (1979)
Aim: Test out weapon focus effect
Procedure: Pp’s sat in a waiting room and overheard an argument and a man ran through carrying either a pen covered in grease or knife covered in blood, pp’s then had to later identify the man from photos
Findings: 49% accuracy in pen condition and 33% accuracy in knife condition

Question 3

How does anxiety have a positive effect on accuracy?

Answer 3

Christianson and Hubinette (1993) found enhanced recall when questioning 58 real witnesses to bank robberies, witnesses were either victims or bystanders, interviews were around 4-15 months after the crime
Findings: Witnesses who were most anxious had the best recall and everyone had a 75% accuracy recall

Question 4

Why may weapon focus effect not be anxiety?

Answer 4

Pickel (1998) said reduced accuracy may be from surprise and not anxiety
Procedure: had someone walk into a hair salon with either a wallet, chicken, gun or scissors
Findings: Identification was least accurate in the high surprise conditions (scissors and chicken)

Question 5

No simple conclusion:

Answer 5

Christianson and Hubinette’s study was violent and other studies even real-life ones like this study are not violent - they found victims of more violent crimes had a better accuracy recall which shows accuracy of recall may be because of the violence