anxiety Flashcards
what is anxiety?
a state of emotional and physical arousal.
e.g. worried thoughts and increased heart rate.
how can anxiety effect the accuracy of an EWT?
in a positive and negative way.
who conducted a weapon focus study?
Johnson and Scott
what was the procedure of the weapon focus study?
*invited participants into a lab where they were told to wait in reception area.
*independant groups design
*‘low anxiety’ ppt overheard a casual conversation and a man left the lab holding a PEN, with his hands covered in GREASE.
*‘high anxiety’ WEAPON condition, overhead a HEATED exchange and the sound of BREAKING glass. Followed by a man running into reception with a BLOODY knife.
*both groups then shown 50 pics and asked to identify WHO had left the lab
what did Johnson and Scott find in their study?
*those who witnessed the man holding a pen correctly identified the man 49%
*those who witnessed the man holding a knife correctly identified him 33%
Loftus claims the ppts who were exposed to the knife had higher levels of ANXIETY, more likely focusing ATTENTION on the WEAPON and not the face.
who conduced the positive anxiety test?
Yuille and Cutshall
what was the procedure for the positive anxiety results, study?
*shop owner shot a thief dead
*21 witnesses originally interviewed, and 13 agreed to take part in a FOLLOW UP interview 4-5 MONTHS later.
*accuracy reported and compared to original interviews made at the time of the shooting
*also asked to rate how stressed they felt at the time of the shooting.
what were the findings of the positive anxiety test?
13 witnesses who took part in the follow up test were ACCURATE in their ewt 5 months later.
*ppts who experienced HIGHEST level of stress were MORE accurate 88% than those who had LOW stress 75%
what was Yerkes-Dodson law?
states that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, only up to a certain point.
As anxiety increases, the accuracy of ewt also increases up to an OPTIMAL point.
but TOO much anxiety will lead to LESS accurate ewt.
